Bringers of Revolution- Night Raid
by SecondToSecond
Summary: The Empire has been on the war path for a long time and they had been tracking down lost teigu for a long time. Their searches have lead them to attack a village in the north. Watch as this event changes the course of not only it's residents but the Empire as a whole. Follow Night Raid on their insurrection of the thousand year old Empire.
1. Kill the Village

**Hey all, I had an idea for an Akame ga Kill fanfic and I don't know if I have enough time to do this now so I wanted to see if anyone actually thought this was interesting. It will take characters from both the prequel and the manga. There will be some things changed in the past so it will have a slightly different world history and some characters will be changed from the canon. The most** **prevalent character will be Seryu but some other characters will have slightly different backstories and places throughout the story. More focus will be put on different characters such as Lubbock and Chelsea since I like them more but every character will have their own moment to shine. If you all could tell me if you like this that will be great to see if I should continue this or not. Thank you for anyone** **that at least gives this story a read, I hope you all enjoy it and if you have any questions feel free to contact me. Without a further do, my Akame ga Kill fanfic: Bringers of Revolution- Night Raid**

Snowflakes glistened as the fell down on the ground, It was that time of year again, winter. The snow from the sky above had already covered the ground in it's cold blanket. Once again the callous winter had been set upon them, however this was without a doubt the worst winter that they had ever seen. If it kept up then some drastic measures had to be taken.

Rubbing his exposed skin, Tatsumi looked up towards the sky. It was dark and gloomy, for this time of day, that was a pretty bad sign. From his experience that either meant a storm was coming or the temperature was going from bad to worse. Neither of those were delectable to anyone in the village. Sighing, Tatsumi took his eyes off of the dark winter sky.

Instead Tatsumi focused his attention down at the sword on his side. It was cold, obviously a result from the surroundings. Soon his time to use it would come, after all, he had been preparing for almost all of his life. His time would come when he would need to help the village out, for him to his duty to the town, and to Kami-sama. Letting go of his sword, Tatsumi turned back to look at his village. Since he had never lived anywhere but here, it was his home and everything he knew.

"Tatsumi come back in, Sayo says you should have a coat on if you're outside in this weather." It was his first and best friend, Ieyasu. Or rather, as it seemed now, Sayo's messenger. Before walking back to the house, Tatsumi watched a white cloud of air leave his mouth until it disappeared into nothingness

"Then why didn't she come out and tell me herself?" Tatsumi asked sarcastically as he walked inside. It was certainly a lot warmer inside than it was outside. After both cleaning off his hair and shoes of snow, he walked into the main room of the house.

The scene was just as it had always been. None of the furniture had been moved around other than the table. This wasn't an extreme change of pace as Sayo had almost always moved it into the middle whenever she had the chance. According to her, no matter what was going on in the house, her game was without a doubt trumped everything else.

"Come on Ieyasu, it's your turn." Sayo groaned as soon as the black haired teenager entered the room. If Tatsumi had to guess, Ieyasu was taking too much time, and by that, he had taken more than a couple of seconds to decide which piece to move.

"How about you move it for me then." Ieyasu stated as he fell on to the chair he had been sitting at. Tatsumi to found himself sitting at the table looking at the gameboard between the two players. Even with his limited knowledge of chess, he knew that no matter what Ieyasu did, he was going to lose. All he could do now was delay the inevitable.

"That wouldn't be any fun, where's the fun in winning against yourself, Now choose." Sayo stated as she grabbed the top of his head a pushed it down so he was looking at the gameboard.

"Not cool." Ieyasu said as he ruffled his hair back to the way it was. To Tatsumi there was no difference in his hair, they both looked as though he had just came out of bed and slapped a headband on. At least he tried to keep his brown hair in check, albeit not with much success. "It's not like I will win anyways." Ieyasu said as with almost no confidence moved his queen.

"Thank you." Sayo smiled as she swiftly maneuvered her piece through to forest of its brethren till it was in the right position. "Check mate." Sayo stated as she flicked Ieyasu's king out from the corner it had been hiding in. Ieyasu proceed to then knock over every single piece that was on the board.

"He blew up." Ieyasu stated with a blank face. This face did not last long and when it finally broke, Tatsumi joined him in his laughter. They had even gotten Sayo to giggle a little bit. After the number of times they had been absolutely annihilated by Sayo, they had learned how to make their failures epic.

In under a minute, Sayo had already set up the chess board for another game. "Hey, Tatsumi, do you want to play some?" Sayo asked as she looked at him with a smile on her face. Tatsumi had long since stopped playing chess with her. Ever since he had lost Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine times against he wasn't willing to push that number into quadruple digits. Thankfully, Ieyasu had taken the bullet and had well over Tatsumi's total, and yet hadn't won a single game.

"I'd rather not." Tatsumi stated as per usual and Ieyasu easily slotted into his role as the failure against Sayo's ever expanding repertoire of moves she had accumulated. Out of the three of them, Sayo was without a doubt the smartest. Their teacher however had always commended Ieyasu on his raw strength and skill, while Tatsumi had always had a fair balance between the two.

Tatsumi watched as Ieyasu kept making bad mistake after bad mistake. It seemed as though he never learned, and somehow Sayo never did the same move twice. Out of the three of them, Sayo had the greatest chance of becoming a general in the Imperial Army. Especially with two impressive female generals before her, she could easily gain the general rank. However Tatsumi and even more so Ieyasu were screwed in that regard. Their skill sets geared them towards being the a foot soldier rather than a commander.

A loud pounding sound echoed from the front door and Ieyasu immediately jumped to go answer it. While Tatsumi had absolutely no problem answering it, Ieyasu just wanted a break from being slaughter by Sayo.

"Tatsumi, the chief is here for you, he wants to talk." Ieyasu said as he returned to the room at sat down in what he had dubbed, the throne of mistakes. By this point it was more of a kingdom. Ieyasu proved this with the very next play he may. It resulted him losing his pawn formation. After bidding his two friends an unceremonious goodbye, he walked outside to meet the chief.

"I remember just yesterday when you were this tall and could barely walk on your own two feet." The chief said as he ruffled Tatsumi's hair. While none of the teenagers in the village ever liked him talking about them in such a fashion, Tatsumi was fine with it. There would come a time when he left this village and even the chief's annoying tendencies would bring a smile to his face.

"Thanks." Tatsumi said as he set his hair back into the right place. "What did you want me for?" Tatsumi asked the chief. It was rare for him to come outside of his cabin at this time of year. His old age had finally caught up with him and the winter just added on to it. At least, the chief, unlike Tatsumi had actually dressed for the occasion.

"I have something to give to you, I've been hesitant of giving this for you for a while now however with you now about to head to the capital, the time had come for me to make a decision, so here." The chief had took out a clay doll and handed it to Tatsumi. This particular clay doll he had seen many times inside the chief's house. It had always been on a shelf, and quote, should not be touched under any circumstance. Everyone had wanted to touch and Tatsumi was no different. And now he had it in his hand

"Carry it with and Kami-sama will always protect you, as long as you are are willing to ask." The chief said as he let go of the doll and left it in the green eyed boy's hands. "Good luck, Tatsumi." The chief bid his final words before turning to leave, this attempt was stopped before he could add two more footprints into the snow.

"Sir, there is four people from the capital coming in on horseback, they should be here any minute." It was one of their messengers, and significantly out of breath at that. He had used all of his strength to get back to the village in time.

"Who was it?" Tatsumi asked immediately, anyone to make them run like this was certainly dangerous.

"General Esdeath." Or simply referred to has the empire's strongest. Even the extent of her strength had reached out all the to this small village in the north. They were in for a world of hurt if Esdeath came, no one even had a chance to survive.

"Tell everyone to run, now, they take no prisoners." The chief said as he ushered of the messenger. Not even saying another word to anyone else, Tatsumi ran inside to tell Sayo and Ieyasu immediately. They needed to get out of her, they were the people that Tatsumi cared about most and he wouldn't General Esdeath have her with them

"Ieyasu, Sayo the empire is here, we have to leave now!" Tatsumi yelled at the top of his lungs as soon as he entered the quaint house. They didn't make sound of objection, not even Sayo who was most likely beating Ieyasu again. The both of them were at Tatsumi's side in less than ten seconds, only with weapons in their hands. Tatsumi was in and out of the house in less than ten minutes.

As soon as they walked outside they say four people on horseback at the edge of the town. Three of them were males however the one called General Esdeath was the one female of the group. That didn't mean that the other three next to her didn't look menacing. There was only one thought in each of the teenagers minds, Run!

"O Look some of the villagers are running, they're like little kids." It was one of the males speaking, a higher voice than was expected. It was the voice Tatsumi had when he was thirteen, and now, his nineteen year old self could only scoff. Someone with that voice like that must not be well respected. "General, can I take some of them to play?" He asked in a quite disturbing tone.

"I think I want to play with them this time." The female, General Esdeath stated nonchalantly. "Nyau, play your flute, let's see if they can stay awake."

The high pitched Nyau scoffed loudly as his feet touched the blanket of snow, "It's not a flute, it's a recorder." A smooth sedate melody filled the air and quickly spread throughout air as the recorder's music started.

Tatsumi didn't even slow down, he wasn't even listening, all Tatsumi was doing was running. In front of him, Ieyasu started to slow down, whatever the flute or recorder was doing it wasn't good. However, him and Sayo were unaffected and kept on running. That was until Ieyasu face planted into the snow.

"Ieyasu!" Sayo turned back around and yanked his head out of the snow by his untamed black hair. Upon running further, Tatsumi saw the downcast face of Ieyasu, and that itself was an oddity. Sayo pulled her hand back and slapped the back of her palm across Ieyasu's face, instantly waking up.

"Ouch, what was-" Ieyasu said he seemed to pop out of a trance

"Doesn't matter, Run!" Sayo yelled as she pulled Ieyasu onto his feet by the hair. There was a slight whimper of pain from Ieyasu but he didn't complain or speak up against the unnecessary pain.

Not letting himself fall behind again, Ieyasu took off in a sprint. There was no inherent problem with that other than the fact that before doing so he grabbed Sayo arm. As a result, Sayo was nearly taken off her feet and dragged by Ieyasu. However, Sayo there was no way in hell that she would let that happen, so she ripped Ieyasu arm off of her and took off like Ieyasu, only faster. Tatsumi followed in suit, but only for mere seconds before he felt an intense shot of pain come from his leg.

His blood stained the white snow crimson red where he fell onto the ground. It was as though a bullet had just tore through his lower leg but instead of being small and metal, what had shot through him definitely was not. Lying just a couple of feet in front of him was a shard of scarlet ice. It had tore through the born in his lower leg like it was nothing and came out of the other end. The bone in his lower leg bone had offered up absolutely no resistance against it.

"Those three have some speed, I can take them out?" It was a new voice, and it was eager for action. Tatsumi heard the patter of horse's hooves moving forward. Tatsumi quickly looked down at his lower leg, which had been wounded quite badly. The blood was pouring out of outer side of his lower leg.

"You can take out the last two, don't touch the first one, he's mine." General Esdeath had spoken up once again. Her voice was cold and frightening yet somehow still had a feminine touch to it, even if it chilled Tatsumi to his very bones. In response to this one of the horses started to gallop against the snow.

"Sayo, Ieyasu run, Now!" Tatsumi yelled as he managed to get himself onto his feet. The moment he stood up his leg gave way and he fell back on the ground. It was as if weighed time as much and that he had sledgehammers constantly being banged against the side of his leg, the pain was unbearable. Using his sword as a cane, Tatsumi managed to get back on his pain was nowhere near bearable, in fact it was almost enough to make him black out, but he managed to keep himself standing. He heard both Sayo and Ieyasu yell something back at him but he was in way too much pain to decipher the words. Instead he yelled his response back at them, "GO!" Tatsumi yelled as he turned around to face the four people on horseback.

One of them was running towards him, the largest one of the four. He wore an incredible smug grin with a ridiculous horns on the top of his head. Both of his hands were on the reins of his horse. Tatsumi had to give Ieyasu and Sayo the best chance to escape. Holding his short sword with both of his hands, Tatsumi readied his blade. Then Tatsumi instantly put his hand down to try and least keep himself upright, his leg was still screaming out in pain. The male behemoth didn't seem to notice this, he just past right on by, not even noticing Tatsumi. That was until Tatsumi took out of the horse's legs, crippling it.

Tatsumi watched as the huge man, landed on the ground with both feet, not even phased by what had just happened. For a split second he looked back at Tatsumi before taking after his two friends. If Tatsumi could only pursue, maybe then they would actually have a chance to survive. However there was a couple of things stopping him from doing this. The biggest of course being there other three that were behind him.

"You're quite cute." General Esdeath stated as she dismounted her horse. Her light blue hair gently fell onto her shoulders after she did. Looking at her now, Tatsumi thought that she was totally in place with the cold snowy winter that they had this year. Like her, they winter had taken them by storm and was dangerous. Though now that she was off the horse, Tatsumi sincerely doubted that anyone that she wanted dead could escape. If someone could, it certainly wasn't him.

"Nyau, keep playing your flute, Liver make sure everyone is asleep, anyone who isn't you have permission to kill. Also, find the Oracle." Esdeath stated as she started to walk towards Tatsumi. Almost instantly Tatsumi clenched up and his whole entire body became stiff. It was as if a cold aura had somehow overtaken the winter and surrounded him in it's cold embrace.

Then without warning, Tatsumi's body jumped into action. Ignoring that absolute pain that it put him in he dashed at Esdeath with his full speed and sword over his head. Before he could bring down his sword on her, Esdeath approached him out of nowhere and slapped him across the first. The result of this had him crashing into the ground, completely out of breath. Tatsumi could feel his skin start to bruise in the cold snow.

"Huh, it looks like I was wrong about you." His opponent said in a bored expression. "You were no challenge at all." Esdeath stated as she posed herself to attack her enemy. Then she stopped almost as fast as she had started. Then Tatsumi out another grunt of pain. It felt like his stomach had just been emptied at the wrong way then filled back again, and finally mixed. The kick to the stomach by Esdeath had given Tatsumi pain like he had never known before. "Get up, I'm not down with you yet." Esdeath said walked away, giving him ample space to get back on his feet.

Aching, Tatsumi obliged and got back onto to his feet, no matter how much it hurt. If he was going to do die, he was at least going to give a good show. "Is that the best you've got?" Tatsumi asked with almost no air, he was no situation to talk.

"Feisty, I like it." Esdeath licked her lips as she unsheathed her rapier from her side. "Show me what you're made of." Esdeath yelled with a sadistic grin on her face. Knowing that this couldn't lead to anything well, Tatsumi ran at Esdeath with all he had. Unfortunately for him, all he had didn't amount to anything meaningful, at least up against the general's skill. Tatsumi ran at Esdeath and unlike last time, she stood there, waiting for his attack. No matter how much it looked like a trap, Tatsumi still went on, producing an upwards arc at Esdeath. However this arc was intercepted by Esdeath's sword, bisect his own in half.

Tatsumi watched as his sword, the sword he had for nearly four years, broke in half. The sword that he had created himself, with his own hands. With metal that he had found himself, Tatsumi had made that sword, and no it was broken, no even offering up resistance against the other. Esdeath's sword cut the side of his face, but to everything else, this seemed to just and salt to the wound.

"Looks like you survived longer than your sword did, at least you can have that as an accomplishment." Esdeath stated mockingly as she once again walked away from Tatsumi had gave them a good distance between each other. "So, can you fight without your weapon, or are you just going to stop here, and die." Esdeath stabbed her sword into the cold ground and cracked her knuckles. "If you do, I'll personally make sure it's incredibly painful." Esdeath sounded as though as though savored the thought of that.

"Like hell!" Tatsumi yelled as he clenched the hilt of his broken sword. Even if it was broken, it could still serve a purpose. Tatsumi, even though every fiber of his being was telling him to stop, went back into action. Leading with his broken sword, Tatsumi attempted to attack General Esdeath.

Using his broken sword as though it was a broken sword, Tatsumi placed both of his hands on the hilt and attempted to bring it down upon Esdeath. However, any chance of this was prevent by Esdeath, who caught the blade with her palms, then proceeded to crush it into fine grains of metal. Tatsumi instantly dropped what remained of the sword then went into an upper cut from his right hand. This was counter from Esdeath's left by a short jab downwards which hurt, a lot. It felt as though some arteries and ruptured. Tatsumi's left hook was surprisingly, less successful. Esdeath caught it and brought him to the ground in a second.

Instead of falling back into the ground like he had done last time. Tatsumi pushed of the ground and back onto his feet only to met by an intense blunt hit to the side of the head. It instantly took him off the ground and the last thing he remembered was the intense pain circumventing his body as his head hit the ground. All he could remember afterwards was complete and utter darkness.


	2. Kill the Beast

**Here's the second installment for all of those who enjoy it! Have fun reading**

"NO!" Ieyasu tried his best to hold back Sayo from running after Tatsumi. The snow on the ground was making it hard for Ieyasu to gain any traction in the ground. He both of his arms around Sayo trying his hardest to turn her around her and stop her from making a useless and pointless action.

Flailing her arms, Sayo broke free of Ieyasu's hold but before she could run off after her other friend, Ieyasu stopped her. He had grabbed onto her wrist just in the nick of time. Any later and she would've been off.

"Let go of me." Her voice was as cold as the winter that surrounded them, maybe even colder. It conveyed a sort of don't touch me aura. An aura of this type Ieyasu had only gotten when trying to look up her skirt, and knew full well that it wasn't something to be trifled with. However, the thought of not trifling with it had not so much as passed through Ieyasu's mind.

"No, we're leaving now." His voice had a finality to it that he had never gotten before. It left no room for loopholes or arguments, all did was convey one singular idea, they needed to get out of there. Unforteley for the both of them, they were entirely too stubborn to give either one any leeway. Ieyasu slowly overpowered Sayo and brought her closer to him ever so slightly but that wasn't for lack of trying. Her adrenaline filled strength right now was stronger than ever.

"Shut up." Sayo's face was screwed up as ever, it looked as though she would do anything short of killing him to release herself from Ieyasu's hold. She wanted nothing more than to help out her best friend.

"GO!" It was Tatsumi screaming, louder than the both of them combined. Sayo's look of hatred stopped as she turned her attention to her other friend, the one who was in mortal peril. The first thing that Ieyasu say was Tatsumi's blood soaked lower left leg. Quite frankly, he was amazed that Tatsumi was able to stand on it. Anything that made that much blood in such little time must hurt like no other.

The thing he saw next was incredibly terrifying and it made Ieyasu leap into action. One of the four horsemen, the largest one was racing towards them on his horse. The look on his face showed Ieyasu that whatever he was about to do to them he was going to like a lot, and that made Ieyasu incredibly uncomfortable. Ieyasu's hand itched he want to grabbed his axe off his back. He could have the showdown here, show everyone that he wasn't the weakest of the three. However, his better judgement got the best of him and he turned tails and ran.

Through his peripheral vision, Ieyasu caught a glimpse of Sayo's face. In stark contrast to the face he had seen just moments before this one seemed much more passive yet it had a bigger problem it was dealing with. Ieyasu knew this look, she had a million thoughts streaming through her head at once and she was trying her hardest to decipher all of them. Just as Ieyasu turned around to attempt to persuade Sayo once more, she took off, following Ieyasu's footsteps in the white snow.

They made it out of the village in less than a minute. In that time Ieyasu overheard several noises in the background. The musical instrument was still playing the soothing melody, as Ieyasu had now dubbed it but had for some reason lost it's over him. Maybe they were too far away now? In addition there was a huge crash which was one of two things. Either A, they had knocked down a house or B the horse had fallen over in the snow. Ieyasu hoped for the latter of the two.

After only a couple of minutes they, or more precisely, Ieyasu had ran out of breath and had stopped to take a break in a clearing right outside of the town. Ieyasu had taken to using a tree as a backrest and the snow as a sort of cushion. Granted it didn't do all the best of jobs, it still worked out fine. On the same tree, Sayo was standing with one foot firmly on the ground supporting her while the other was flat against the tree. She was currently checking all of the daggers that she had on her.

"You're still here." The deep voice echoed throughout the forest clearing as the biggest and tallest of the riders walked into it. His face had a small smirk on it along with a dirty blond beard and sideburns. He was wearing black with white strips and his hair draped down until about half down his back. However, what caught Ieyasu's eyes first was the weapon that he was holding in his right hand.

It was a double sided axe that had the two sides apart from each other. They could probably disconnect if they wanted to. The sheer size of the weapon was what had drawn Ieyasu's eyes to it. This weapon was bigger than anything that Ieyasu had seen before. His axe in comparison looked like a child compared to it. They stood no chance against him, even if the spiky horns on his head were stupid. He was an enemy that they had no chance of beating.

"I'm thankful that you stayed behind, I wouldn't want Esdeath-sama being disappointed in me." The behemoth of a man stated nonchalantly as he continued his walking pace towards the villagers. Ieyasu's hands flew towards his axe and swung it in front of him. While it was nothing compared to his opponents, it was a weapon, something that he would need.

"Upfront and bold, I like it, you're going to give me a ton of experience. Name's Daidara. Yours?" The man named Daidara said as he readied his axe out in front of him. In the same fashion, Ieyasu copied his movements, bring his axe in front of him. He made his face as expression less as possible but succeeded only be a little bit. The fear of impending doom was surrounding him.

"Ieyasu." He said as cold and blunt as possible. If he was going to kill him then why not get it over with sooner rather than later.

"Pleasure to met you Ieyasu, put up a fight." Daidara said as he started to walk towards the two villagers. Silently, Sayo's other foot fell onto the ground as she pulled her bow off her back. Before she could get an arrow notched, Ieyasu grabbed her arm once more.

"Leave, now." Ieyasu stated bluntly then he let go of her arm. He knew that Sayo didn't like what he had done, however he did not care in the slightest. All that mattered was that she got out, that was what Tatsumi would've wanted after all.

"NO, I-" She was cut off in an instant by Ieyasu.

"Leave, back there Tatsumi is spending last few moment's fighting to his death, just allow me to do the same. We're not winning this even if you do stay, so leave I'll buy you as much time as possible." Ieyasu stated as he readied his axe and looked towards his adversary. Sayo stood there in contemplation for a second before she took off, leaving him and Daidara to dual.

"Quite selfless of you, let's see how much time you buy her." Daidara stated as he ran at Ieyasu, axe trailing in the snow behind him. Immediately, Ieyasu ran away, a frontal assault from him was not something that he nor his weapon would be able to handle. Running with his tail between his legs was the most efficient and effective way to give Sayo as much time as possible.

Not fifteen seconds into doing that, he was knocked off his feet by a ripple effect that echoed through the ground. Daidara had jumped up and slammed into the ground, spreading the snow into the air and even denting the ground. This caused Ieyasu to be knocked off of his feet and onto the snow covered ground. It hurt nearly as much as he thought it would have. Slamming into the ground from an earthquake wasn't as bad as it seemed.

"Is that the best you got." Ieyasu smirked as he shrugged off the fall. If that was all that Daidara could muster then he would be fine, Ieyasu could take hits like those all day. With a grin of contempt on his face, he dropped into his fighting stance, preparing for the next strike to come at him.

"You haven't seen anything yet." Daidara's smirk was a million years bigger than Ieyasu's. Almost immediately, Ieyasu's face transformed from the confident grin he had donned to as stolid as possible. It wasn't all that great as he was seriously afraid and had absolutely no idea how to hid his emotions. Gripping his sword harder than ever, Ieyasu waited for the next attack to come in.

Daidara practically flied at Ieyasu with how fast he was running. It took all of Ieyasu's speed just to dodge out of the way, and even that wasn't a complete dodge. Instead of dodging right, Ieyasu dodged left which was a terrible mistake. Since Daidara's axe had been on that side, Ieyasu was attacked by it. The only thing that saved him was the fact that Daidara's attack couldn't have the power or force it usually had. With that said, it slammed into Ieyasu's axe and sent both it and him flying.

His bones started to bend as he hit the ground the first time then bounced off it. Slamming into the ground the second time, Ieyasu's body managed to not bounce a third, however that did nothing to assuage the pain that had spread itself across his body like wildfire. Both of his arms felt slightly out of place and his left foot was shooting pain throughout his body, in addition to the fact that every single part of his body now ached. If that was an indirect hit, Ieyasu didn't want to feel what a direct hit was.

"You're light." Daidara stated as he started to walk to the pile of flesh that was Ieyasu. It felt as though his body was slow tearing away from him, he had never felt something like that this before. Ieyasu's mind was race as his body started to slow down. He was going to die here wasn't he? All that Tatsumi had just done for him and he couldn't take one hit from this man? That was sad, he was a sad, little boy, that was about to die in the middle of a snow covered clearing. His blood would stain this area for years to come. With all of the strength he had, Ieyasu pushed himself off the ground and readied his axe.

"If you're going to kill me, you might as well finish the job." Ieyasu laughed weakly as he attempted to balance himself.

"You asked for it." In an instant, Daidara took after him with his axe in front of him. Unlike each other time, Ieyasu didn't have the strength to try and dodge, so all he did was hold his axe close to his body. Within the moment, Daidara had already covered the clearing and posed to strike. He didn't even try to go around Ieyasu's axe, he struck straight through it.

Ieyasu would've died right then and there if his axe had broken, but it did not, instead Ieyasu would have to go through a much more painful experience. As Daidara's ornate axe struck his own, he felt the force vibrate through his body as he was thrown off of his feet and backwards. After rolling and bouncing off the ground way too many times for his liking, Ieyasu's back struck a tree and he lost all of his momentum, along with most of his dignity. Upon striking the tree, Ieyasu let out a loud scream that masked what little they could hear of the recorder's music.

Even if Ieyasu wanted to get he couldn't. Apart from the pain of actually doing so, it seemed as though his brain was actively telling his body to do the opposite. His body simply wanted to sit there a die in peace or whatever attempted to pass for it as of right now. Other the other hand, his mind simply wanted him to get up a continue this abomination of a dual until he was deader than dead.

"You're strong kid." Daidara stated as he raise his axe above his head. He had somehow managed to get close to Ieyasu without him noticing. Though it was a lot easier no that his mind was dipping in and out of consciousness. If he was lucky then he would feel the axe tear through his body but he don't that he couldn't be in much more pain anyways. However the anticipated fetal attack never came, instead two loud clicks of metal replaced it.

"You're still here." Daidara stated with a hint of chuckle. It was Sayo, he knew it even without looking. He was a fool to think that she had left, in no circumstance would she leave when she didn't have to. If he hadn't practically dragged her out of the village, then she would've stayed there to die with Tatsumi. And now she had stayed behind to die with him.

"More experiance for me." Daidara growled as Ieyasu felt him leave the ground once more. Instead of trying to move to get a better view, Ieyasu stayed put. Moving after Daidara hit the ground seemed a lot more advantageous. As he could see the ongoing battle it didn't make much of a difference to him either way. However what did matter was how far his axe had flew away from him. In no universe would he get his axe back, especially without Daidara noticing him.

Once again the ground shook as Daidara hit the ground. Where he had landed all of the snow displaced itself into the air disappearing into a cloud of white. Utilizing a couple of backflips, Sayo tried her hardest to get away from Daidara but this proved somewhat unsuccessful. It was clear that while Sayo could get away, Daidara was faster than her thus any attempt at doing so would ultimately lead to her death.

In an instant, Sayo changed her tactics completely. Taking out two more daggers, Ieyasu watched Sayo carry out her plan. The first thing she did was throw both of her daggers at Daidara, the daggers barely had a couple of seconds in her hands before they flew off into their doom. They did absolutely nothing. Without even trying, Daidara deflected both of the daggers, it barely even slowed him down. Thankfully, Sayo was still able to carry out the next phase of her plan.

Ieyasu watched as she jumped onto the nearest tree and climbed it to the top. It was a tactic that he would've never dream of using and yet it seemed as though Sayo had practiced climbing a tree of this very occasion. With unparalleled grace she reached the top of the tree and didn't stop to see what Daidara was doing. At the base of the tree Daidara was using his axe as it had been originally designed to, he chopped the tree down.

By the time he had done so, Sayo was already in the air, jumping to the next tree. Ieyasu looked around for a weapon or something that be used as a weapon. His own axe had flown a couple of paces away as have all of Sayo's knives. Going after any of those would lead him to be acknowledged by Daidara. Sayo's bow and arrows were lying on the ground even further away, they would've been more of a hindrance than a help for her, even Ieyasu could tell that much. The only way he could help out Sayo was if one of her knives somehow managed to find it's way over to him.

Sayo had continued to jump from tree to tree, attempting to use the trees to make up for Daidara's superior speed. This was exactly what the tactic had done. The rate of which Daidara could chop down trees was slower than the speed of which Sayo could jumped from tree to tree. However, this tactic barely lasted for thirty seconds as Daidara still had a hidden ability up his sleeve.

The double bladed axe that he had been using to cutting down the trees had separated itself into two. One in both of his hands, Daidara threw one at the tree that Sayo was one and the one she would jump to. Both of the flying blades cut through the trees like a hot knife on butter. Sayo didn't even have a chance to catch on to the falling tree before it hit the ground.

Following in suit, Sayo hit the ground with what looked to be like a very uncomfortable crash. Any sound of her crash, however was concealed by yet another tree falling. This one was not to far away from where Ieyasu was. Sayo was slowly edging the battle closer to him. It was obvious to Ieyasu, there was no way that either one of them was going to win the battle on their own. In order to even have a chance at being Daidara they had to work together.

Both parts of Daidara's axe flew back to him like a boomerang, he hadn't so much as expended a single resource to counter Sayo's plan. Instead of connecting them back into the massive double bladed axe that it had been at the start, Daidara threw both of them towards Sayo. Each one of the blades flew much faster than Sayo's knives and made Sayo move drastically out of the way. Even with her constant dives to left the onslaught of flying axe after flying axe was slowly taking it's toll on Sayo.

She couldn't lessen the distance between them without risking some serious wounds, so Daidara was able to throw axe after axe. Sayo's arms and torso were both covered with blood now. The axe's were getting shallow cut after shallow cut. These wounds wouldn't be enough to kill her or even slow her down, but it did send a message: sooner or later she was going to die. Ieyasu would have to do something soon or she would go down.

Using the tree to help him up, Ieyasu finally got off the snow covered ground. Brushing the snow out of his hair, he tried to come up with a plan. Nothing around him would be useful, not even a snowball. A projectile would be the way to go as Ieyasu stood no chance of getting somewhat close to him. However the task of finding one was daunting, there was absolutely none near him. Then an idea struck him, a dumb but an idea nonetheless.

One of Ieyasu's feet slid back as he prepared to run. If this plan of his worked, then they may win, however he only had one shot at it so it would have to be the best he's got. Ieyasu waited patiently as he looked for an opening. Even though every second counted and he didn't have much time he needed to take his time. It had to be perfect. Then Ieyasu took off into the middle between Sayo and Daidara and grabbed one of the blades. With all of his might, he redirected it's trajectory from his friend and at Daidara. Not so much as slowing down, the blade slide right through his midsection.

Daidara's eyes widened as his crimson blood spread itself across his body. In a mere second his entire midsection looked as a cranberry bomb had exploded on it. The second fell to the ground right beside Ieyasu. It landed as though it was a feather, absolutely no intent to kill. However this didn't so much as move his eyes away from Daidara. The behemoth of a man wasn't moving a muscle, if Ieyasu didn't know any better it looked as though he was a statue. Unmoving and with no emotion. Then a smirk spread across his face. Without so much as a witty remark he fell to the ground with a soft thud.

If he could have, Ieyasu would have stood there motionless for hours looking at the man he had just killed, sadly that he could not be the case. The weapon that had just killed him was approaching Ieyasu and full speed. A lot easier than he had expected to, Ieyasu caught the blade with only one of his hands. It was a lot lighter than it looked. Bending down Ieyasu picked up the other half and attached the two. A long handle materialized from the bottom the two and Ieyasu threw it onto his back, replacing the axe he had been using.

"Come on Sayo, let's leave before anyone else comes. " Ieyasu stated as he walked over to Sayo and gave her his coat to keep warm. The wounds that she had over on her arms would need to stay warm. Sayo looked back in the direction the village would be before nodding her head and walking deeper into the forest.


	3. Kill the Capital

**This is the last chapter that I have already written, if you want me to continue this then please tell me that with whatever means you want to. If you have any constructive** **criticism** **then please tell me and if you have any quarries about the** **story** **I'll be happy to** **answer** **them. Anyways I hope you all enjoy this chapter and happy reading!**

"So this is the capital." Ieyasu was looking up at buildings that were more than a single story. His expression akin to that of a little kid getting a new toy, or having a bunch desserts instead dinner. It was as though he was craving to go up to one of the buildings and lick it. Well, if anything it was better than him starting her like had been doing for the last seventeen years of his life.

"Stop gawking, we have things we need to do." Sayo stated as she continued to walk without Ieyasu. Much to everyone else's dismay, the smart Ieyasu had stopped in the middle of the street to look at buildings. Even if she had known him her whole life, his bounds of stupidity somehow grew larger and larger by the day.

"Right." Ieyasu had seemingly been brought back to his senses. He quickly caught up to Sayo who was armed with possibly every single weapon they had found on the way to the capital. From the bow that was slung across her back and all of her knives she had hidden on her body to a sword she had found on the road on her belt. She was practically a swiss army knife of weapons. Meanwhile all that Ieyasu had was the giant axe he had picked off of Daidara's body. "So you really do think that the Empire's Strongest is here in the capital?" Ieyasu stated once was walking next to her.

"I don't know." Her tone was softer than the usual tone that she gave him but with a hint of sorrow. "But the best place to find a lead would be the biggest city in the nation, not to mention the capital and also where the Emperor is." Sayo stated as she pointed up towards the huge imperial palace. Truth be told, she hadn't exactly seen it before but if that building was anything else than she would be quite surprised. From what she could see it was big enough to house their entire village then a couple more on top of that. If she didn't know any better she would say that it was an extravagant house for giants

"So that's what all of the taxes go to, the capital and that fancy palace." Ieyasu said with a ton of disgust at the sight of it. Throughout the last couple of weeks that they had trekked to the capital they had not came across a single town as industrialized as the capital. The best houses they had seen were the absolute bottom class in the capital. To be fair, at least those houses didn't smell nearly as bad as this city did. It smelt as though there was a rotting corpse in at least a third of the houses.

Sayo grabbed onto a fistfull of Ieyasu's shirt and pulled him to the point where her mouth was nearly touching his ear. "Don't voice you distress out loud, I don't think this nation would take kindly to them." Sayo whispered quietly. Ieyasu swept Sayo's hand off of his shirt and replaced the bent over and awkward posture she put him in with one that felt a lot more natural. "Come on, let's go in here, might as well start with leads from a bar." Sayo stated as she grabbed his hand and pulled him into a small little tavern.

However, the inside of the tavern was not as Sayo would have hoped it too have been. Probably due to the fact it was the afternoon and the tavern wasn't exactly in the best position. She doubted that a tavern in the middle of a backwater alley during a time which most of patrons were working could make much money. apart from being a place to traffic drugs indoors. Even then this place probably wasn't hot for that venue. After looking around and realizing that they were the only people in the bar, they turned around and head for the door without so much as talking to the bartender, who was asleep on the counter. Sayo and Ieyasu turned around and started to walk out of the tavern but were stopped to two other people who had just entered.

"You two must be outsiders, how about letting Onee-san give you a warm welcome?" One of two of them spoke to them, the feminine one. Immediately, the first thing that Sayo saw was that she was wearing possibly one of the most revealing outfits she had ever seen, that included the sleepwear that she had. However, Sayo really didn't want to focus on the busty blond for longer than she needed to.

"We heard you speaking about the Empire's Strongest, we have some information on her that might prove to be interesting." The male spoke up with a slightly effeminate voice. With his green hair and emerald eyes, he looked younger than the woman who had taken to calling herself 'Onee-san'. What caught Sayo's eyes about him was that he had been looking at Ieyasu for the entire time, only looking at her once before looking back at him. Sayo didn't know wether to take this as a insult or assume he wasn't a pervert.

"Do you know where she is at?" Sayo asked as she turned to the green haired male. He looked to be around the same age as her, maybe a year or two older. Though the goggles he was wearing on his head did make him seem just a little bit younger than her and Ieyasu.

"You can't expect us to just give you information, maybe we should do this over a meal, what do you say?" The lady smirked as Sayo looked at her. This granted her an eye roll from Sayo and eventually a reluctant yet eager yes. "I'm Leone and this is Lubbock." She stated as her head shoke in the direction of the green haired male. He gave a tiny wave of his hand as he directed Ieyasu over to a table. The blond busty Leone had walked over to the bar and rudely awaken the bartender. Not wanting to be anywhere near a drunk, just woken up bartender, Sayo choose to follow the two boys and took a seat next to Ieyasu.

"So all that I had with me was a sword and handkerchief, and I had to find a way to defeat about one hundred westerns." This was the first thing that Sayo heard as she sat down. Both the green haired Lubbock and her black haired friend, Ieyasu. At the moment, Ieyasu was completely enthralled by the stories of which Lubbock was telling.

The tale of which he was telling with quite a lot of enthusiasm and hand movements was one of great danger, or at least, that's what he had said it was of. Sayo had missed most of the story but had came in at what she had assumed to be the climax of the story. Apparently it was at least somewhat interesting as Ieyasu was fully engulfed in it. At the moment the green hair male was hanging from a broken bridge with enemies on both sides. Her interest was peaked a little bit but his story was stopped before it got to its conclusion.

"Shut up Lubbock." Leone slammed four mugs of beer on to the table before lounging in the chair across from Sayo. Ieyasu's head immediately turned towards the blond and if she had known the two people in front of the better, she would have put a fist into his face. Even though she had grown up with him it never ceased to amaze her at how much he ogled at breasts. "So what brings you two to the capital?" Leone had already downed her entire mug of beer.

"What do you know about Esdeath's whereabouts?" Sayo ignored Leone's question and cut straight to her own. This cause Leone to readjust her posture into a better position and Lubbock to turn his gaze at her. His green eyes remind her of Tatsumi, it had only been a couple of weeks and it had felt like a lifetime. Leone and Lubbock exchanged a look before looking back at the both of them. She didn't know about Ieyasu, but it felt to her as though these people wouldn't give her anything useful.

"Information does not come cheap especially on the Empire's Strongest herself, it's going to cost you." Lubbock stated after a brief moment. In this moment, Sayo took a drink of the beer. Being her first time drinking it, she didn't know how she had managed to keep it down in that moment. It was something like nothing she had never tasted before. If she had it her way, Sayo would never drink whatever that was ever again.

"How much?" Sayo asked as she pulled out their giant stack of money that they had accumulated. They didn't have anything upon leaving their village but upon selling quite a lot of danger beast meat and other stuff, the sum of gold they had made was quite sizable. It would at least be enough to by whatever information that they had.

"No." Ieyasu stated as he placed his hands on the sack and brought it off the table. This was the first time he had so much as touched it and he immediately placed it in the secure part of Sayo backpack that she had just pulled it out from. "Any information that they know is not worth paying for. It's either they tell us for free right now or we go out on to the streets a listen for word on the Empire's Strongest, it shouldn't be all that hard to find." Ieyasu stated as he stood up. "Come on, let's go." Ieyasu picked up his enormous axe and swung it onto his back. All of them watched him as he stood up.

"Wait." Lubbock stated right as Sayo started to make her leave to follow Ieyasu. Ieyasu turned around and looked at the green haired male, waiting for him to speak up again. "I bet we could cut out a deal without involving money." He stated slowly and unsteadily, something told Sayo that this was not part of his and Leone's plan. Plus Leone at the moment was rolling her eyes and was preparing to drink all of Lubbock's beer in one gulp.

"What do you want?" Ieyasu asked as he sat back down but he didn't make an effort to seem in the least bit comfortable. His axe was still attached to his back and both of his hands were put out in front of him folded neatly on the table. Sayo couldn't believe her eyes, one moment ago he was just a naive boy enthralled by what could only be an overtold and exaggerated tale of 'bravery' from someone he didn't even know. However, with the aura confidence he was exhibiting, she couldn't help but think the opposite.

"Why do you want to know where Esdeath is?" Lubbock asked as he too shifted in his seat to be in a more upright manner. While he didn't quite reach the stature that Ieyasu had it was at least trying somewhat. Leone had too sat up in her seat to the point that while she wasn't exactly sitting lady-like, she still was taller than everyone else at the table.

"She took something of ours and we're out for revenge, we'll kill her or dying trying." Ieyasu stated confidently. Out of the corner of her eye, Sayo caught Leone almost successfully hide a snort of laughter. Thankfully, Ieyasu didn't hear it and it seemed as though Lubbock had tuned out his partner. At the moment, the two of them were in an intense battle of wits, or at the moment, staring contest.

"Esdeath is heading north at the moment, I doubt you can catch her so I would wait until she comes back. Up there she's going to lead her campaign against the north, it should be finished in about a year." Lubbock stated after he sighed. The moment he opened his mouth, Leone's attention was immediately and she break eye contact with him even once he stopped talking. Sayo could even feel an aura of hostility emanating off of her, in her opinion, it was even more hostile than the axe wielder back at the village. However, this aura did not change Lubbock's expression in the slightest, besides the obvious tones of hesitation.

"Thank you, if we have any other questions where could we find you?" Ieyasu stood up as thanked the other male. As he did, he held out his right hand for him. This time, instead of waiting for Ieyasu to make it to the door to stand up, Sayo stood up in the following second after he did. While, both Lubbock and Leone shook Ieyasu's hand, Sayo bowed her slightly and silently towards the both of them.

"I own a bookstore in town called Book Night, just go in there and tell whoever's at the counter that you want to speak to Lubbock, they'll know what to do." Lubbock stated as he stood up also. "It was nice meeting you two, see you around." Lubbock stated as he bowed a lot more than Sayo came close to doing. Once, they said their goodbyes, both Sayo and Lubbock left the tavern and looked up towards the sky. The crimson and orange bands of slight had not stretched across the sky, it was nearing dinner time.

"What should do now?" Ieyasu asked as he let out a sigh of relief. From the depth of the exhale, she could tell that he had been holding it in for quite some time. From what she could speculate, he had been holding it in the entirety of their conversation with Lubbock and Leone. In addition, both of his hands were on his knees and he was bending as though he had just ran way too much.

Instead of responding, Sayo looked around the street for a couple of moment's before starting to wander off. The streets in her weren't anything exceptional, honestly quite bland after the first time that she had seen them. Since this was one of the few modern cities in the Empire and the only she had seen it was quite a bit different from everything else she had seen. Mainly, the biggest difference was that she had seen was the infrastructure of everything. Unlike the houses she had grown up seeing, these buildings had actual color along with many glass windows. The only house in their village that even had a window was the chief's house and that one only had a singular window on the front.

Sayo wandered throughout the town with Ieyasu following not too far behind. Once it was supper time they got a couple of fried fish to eat before they continued to haphazardly wander through the city. Everything look street looked basically the same with variations on the stores and buildings in it. Even a series of five posters were adorned on every single street, sometimes twice a street.

Each one of them had the same basic layout. On top it said in big bold letters wanted, then below that was a picture of them captioned with the words Dead or Alive, Night Raid finally and what Sayo presumed to be their names. The names of these wanted people were Akame, Najenda, Bulat, Green and Sheele. Both Green and Sheele were wearing glasses while each of the others looked as though they were scowling. However, this pictures were just sketches and just from them she couldn't really get that great of an idea of what they looked like though the million gold reward for turning them in did make her want to do so.

"We should leave before we see some of these people see us, Esdeath isn't in the capital." Ieyasu stated as he grabbed Sayo's should and turned her around. It was now night time and something was telling them that this wasn't the best place to be when the sun wasn't in the sky. Considering that they were the only people that she could see, Ieyasu was probably right and they should get out of the capital.

"Alright, let's go." Sayo stated as she walked at a faster pace than she had been walking at. It was more of a jog than a walk at the moment. She swore that she could feel someone watching them but she couldn't exactly figure out from where, or who it was, but she didn't want to figure that out either. Even after a couple of streets a quite a great distance covered, the feeling didn't change however, something else came in. The slow steps of horses on the ground were growing louder from behind them. Once she turned around she saw a horse drawn carriage nearly on top of them and had to push Ieyasu out of the wait for them to past. However, instead of passing, it came to a halt right in front of them.

"Do you two need a place to stay?" A girls head popped out, she looked as if she was thirteen and the oldest fourteen. This did not make sayo feel any better about getting into a strangers carriage. The girl had round and big blues eyes plus short yet straight blonde hair, it looked as though she thought she was at the top of the hierarchy.

"We're fine." Sayo said curtly. She didn't want to talk for longer than she needed to. She grabbed Ieyasu's arm and pulled him along but the carriage followed them.

"Please I insist, we have way more rooms than we need." The girl stated as her entire head was now out of the carriage, she seemed a little too eager to give out help on a whim. Instead of responding with the same words and probably more rude than the were last time, she turned both her and Ieyasu around and started walking in the opposite direction. She would like to see the horse drawn carriage try and turn around and follow them. Fortunately, the carriage and girl did not try a just went back on as if they had never seen her. At the end of the street was their presumably their huge mansion now that she looked a little more closely. A small part of her regretted not taking her offer.

However, all thoughts of that immediately ceased from her mind as she watched a person jump down from off of one of the buildings and onto the ground. The ground around where she landed crack and she left quite a bit of the stone out of its place. Much like the girl that they had just seen, she had blonde hair and blue eyes but she looked much more devilish. Every single nerve in her body told her to run but she knew that running would just delay the inevitable.

"Hello, how are you two doing." She stated once she made sure her hair was back to not being ruffled. At the moment, she looked as though she was a character right out of a children's book expect for the fact the she was wearing a full body trench coat. That didn't make her nor Ieyasu feel comfortable as both of them drew their weapons, it was something about ehr that made them feel as though she was going to kill the both of them.

"Oh, the pets want to fight, this should be interesting." The girl or more likely woman chuckled as she looked at the both of them. Ieyasu was first to move. He launch himself into the air then went down hard at her with his axe over his head. About an inch from her head, she caught the axe between her hands and completely stopped all of his moment. Then she smashed both him and the axe into the ground resulting in a hard crash and Ieyasu bouncing a couple of times before slowly getting back up. Sayo went over to make sure that he didn't get attacked while standing up. INstead of doing that, the girl had another action that she took.

"I should introduce myself, I'm Dorothea, head of the Ministry of Research in the Empire." She stated as she gave a small little bow to them. "And you are in ownership of a teigu, I'm going to need that from you, along with your lives of course." Dorothea chuckled as she opened up her huge trench coat. Inside of it were all sorts of objects, from strange to weird. Of what had caught Sayo's eye the was what looked to be dead knife, a trumpet, three crystal and a golden gauntlet. "What should I choose?" She choose to be what was a mask made entirely out of charcoal. The she pulled a syringe a shot it into her neck. Her face grimaced for a second then she grinned an even more devilish grin than before. "You ready for the fires of hell?" She asked as she put on the mask. Immediately the mask started to glow red hot then ignited and bright red flames encased her whole entire head. Then they traveled across her whole entire body before her entire body was covered in red flames.

"Shit." Ieyasu stated as he turned around ran. Sayo had the same idea but instead went off to her left. Then she turned around to look at Dorothea and was greeted with flames nearly missing her head. Startled she backed away straight into a fist, covered in fire. This sent her into a wall spreading pain throughout her back and front, albeit one was from burns and the other was from getting slammed into a wall. Hitting the ground, Sayo felt like all of her strength had been knocked out in a single second, it hurt a lot. A great deal of flames grow on Dorothea's hand, she was probably about to shoot a fireball at her. Curling up, she braced herself for more fire to spread onto her body but it never came. Instead an axe flew into view and just barely missed Dorothea.

"You haven't had the teigu for long now have you, you're still a little green." Dorothea shot a fireball behind her head a shot the axe off it's path and it missed her again. "Come on now, at least try to entertain me, show me some will to live why don't you, maybe then you could survive." Dorothea chuckled as she took off running at Ieyasu. She was faster than anyone they had ever seen run, even that guy that had the axe on him was slower than her.

Instead of responding to her, Ieyasu took his axe, now with both of its side on it and swung it at Dorothea, stopping her sprint at him. However, that was all that it did, as she just shot a fireball at it and it was knocked out of the way. She then kicked him in the chest and sent him flying into a wall. Sayo heard the wall crack as he hit it then heard Ieyasu hit the ground in a clump. His axe hit the ground with a clink but Sayo could tell that he had been hit pretty hard. Trying to get up, she released that she was in way too much pain to stand up.

Then she saw Ieyasu stand back up even though she could tell that he was in a ton of pain. Once he was standing, he swung his axe at Dorothea in a blind rage only to be caught by one of her hands the punch in the stomach by her other one. He then crumbled to the ground at Dorothea's feet, that was obviously the last bit of his strength used. "For someone who took down Daidara I thought you would be a bit stronger, maybe I was just kidding myself. Time for this to end." Her hand glowed even more intensely as if she was going to shoot him with flames but before she could she had her feet taken out from under her. Ieyasu jumped back on to his feet then backed away from her.

There were multiple places were she could see burn marks and burnt parts of clothes, he looked as though her had been put in a campfire then taking out again and again until they had felt it was good enough. Apparently, it wasn't good enough just yet as another shot of fire came towards him and he dodged it.

"You're just getting more and more interesting aren't you, I would love to research you a bit." She smiled as she continued to shot fireball after fireball at him. Even in his tired and weak statem he was able to deflect and block all of them and even attempt to attacking her, albeit not very successfully. It ended with him being slammed into a wall only to get back up again as though nothing had happened.

"Alright, I've made up my mind, you're coming with me, you'll make an excellent test subject." Dorothea stated as she took off the mask and her entire body went back to normal, there were no flames covering her anymore. "Your strength and perseverance are like nothing I have ever seen before, I wonder how far you can take before you break." Dorothea grinned as she took out another syring of the same style as last time and injected herself with it. Then she grabbed out a different mask, this one was clear except for the part that covered the mouth, that looked like some sort of filtration system. Attached to the mask was a tube which came out from the month.

Ieyasu ran at her but it was too late, a gas had started to expand out of the tube at an alarming rate. The moment Ieyasu ran into her fell to the ground, seemingly knocked unconscious in a second. Sayo attempted to stand up but the pain on her chest was blinding her and restricting all of her movements. Cursing herself, Sayo closed her eyes and waited for the gas to take her too hoping that she would be safe in wherever they ended up. Before she was knocked out however, she felt a hand cover her mouth and start to drag her.


	4. Kill the Nerd

**So not that any of you wanted this but I thought I had time and might as well write this when I can. If you enjoy, follow it. If not, well I'll probably slowly write this anyways. Enjoy!**

The first thing that Sayo felt when she awoke was a jarring pain emanating from her back and chest. From her back is more of a shadow of the pain that had probably been there beforehand, but her front was a different story. Instead of being at least somewhat nice, it shot searing pain after searing pain every time she moved. After realizing that all too much, Sayo resigned to just letting her eyes wander over her surroundings.

There was absolutely nothing special of what she saw around her. It was a pretty small and every basic. Besides for quite too many empty sake bottles on the coffee table and the couch that she was laying on, there was nothing else. On the far wall, she saw a staircase leading to a door at the top of it. Sayo had the strange suspicion that this was a hidden room of some sort, albeit, not a very good one. If she was going to hide out in a room, she would at least make sure there was a supply of food in it somewhere.

Then the door creaked open and the green haired male that she had met yesterday walked down. His hair was even more united than it had been yesterday, and his face seemed the slightest bit more gaunt as if he had not slept for a bit. The goggles he had been wearing had fallen down to his neck and his green jacket was nowhere to be seen. All in all, he didn't look too bad, certainly presentable but he could use a bit of pointers to up his appearance.

"You're awake." He stated as he jumped the last step. Immediately, he walked over to her and started to search for something in a cabinet that Sayo didn't even know existed. After a fair bit of foraging, he stood back up and put a jar of cream onto the table. "This is one of the strongest medicinal creams made in this nation, it should be able to stop the pain from coming from your chest. After about three usages of it and your burns should go away. I would apply it soon; it works better if it applied sooner rather than later." The jar clinked onto the table as he set it down. "In addition, your shoulder was popped out of socket, I don't think you woke up from me popping it back into socket." Sayo shook her and more pain was shot up to her brain. She closed her eyes in reaction to it, the pain was never pleasant.

"I have something for that." He said hesitantly as he pushed himself off of the table and back over to the cabinet. "Best non addictive pain medicine on the market." The boy said as he put another jar on the table. This one, like the cream didn't have any label or anything to tell her what exactly it was, it could be a pill for rape, and she wouldn't know the difference. "Open your mouth." The pill was now being held up in the air right above her mouth. Sayo was a bit hesitant but as he had saved her from that witch Dorothea. Where was Ieyasu?

In a single motion, Sayo jerked herself into a sitting position, realized just how much her body was hurting then fell back onto the armrest again. "The helps you know." Her savoir stated as he looked at her in mid amusement. If he was going to turn her into a submissive sex slave, there wasn't much she could do to stop him, and with that in mind she opened her mouth. "It should take about half an hour to get into effect, that's the downside of it being non addictive." He stated as he closed the jar of pills. "As I was saying your shoulder dislocated but I set it. Your hand has mild burns which have older been treated." Sayo looked at he left hand to only now realize that it had been bandaged up this entire time. Rather than telling herself she was unobservant, Sayo told herself it was because there were more pressing matters at that time.

"There is something wrong with your knee, but I don't know what exactly, so I just put a brace on it. And I can tell without too much examination that you have a couple of cracked ribs." The apparent medical professional said as her point towards her chest then immediately recoiled as if he had dipped his hand into a pot of boiling water. This had been quite funny to see happen, he was such an awkward fellow. Smiling Sayo reached over to grab the burn cream only to realize that medicine hadn't kicked in yet, apparently that one thought didn't take her a half an hour to fabricate.

"Hey…" Sayo tried to rack her mind for his name but all that came up was Daidara, at that was that giant axe brute from back at the village. "What was your name again?" Sayo asked as she turned her head to look at the green eye, green haired teenager.

"It's Lubbock, as hard of a name as that is to remember." He chuckled as he looked back at the, for all intents and purposes, paralyzed girl who was laying on the couch. Sayo could only imagine how hopeless she looked at the current moment, with all of the bandages, braces and broken bones.

"Could you put the cream on the burn, it's a little too painful to do so myself?" Sayo asked as she motioned to her chest, where the burns had concentrated their firepower at. Out of the bottom of her eye she could see that some of her skin there was completely black and almost ash like though it still managed to cover what laid underneath. This burn seared mostly around the sternum with more burns on the left rather than the right.

"UHHHHHHH-" Lubbock did not seem to have the ability to form words at the moment. His hands started to twitch like there was no tomorrow and his eyes were darting around the room obviously trying their hardest not to land on her.

"Hey, you idiot, the only way you can mess this up if you mess up the burns even more than they already are, can you please just do it." Sayo rolled her eyes, the moment she ever asked a male to do anything, they just couple blank out on her every time, it was quite obnoxious and unhelpful. Sayo kind of needed the ointment to be put on her soon before the burn does some permanent damage to her skin.

After a couple of moments of wavering before he seemingly loss of it in an instant. Gone was the weird and awkward green haired teenager, now replaced with a man on a mission, to spread the ointment all of her burn. Gently, he unscrewed the cap and dipped two of his fingers into the jar. The ointment slowly but surely covered the fingers in a thick coat before he took the two of them out. Sayo barely even felt as though she felt his fingers when the ointment touched her skin. All that she could feel was the pain from the burn slowly getting alleviated after each and every drop of it covered the burn. Not sure of how much time had passed, Sayo finally felt as though quite a bit of her pain had left her. However, quite a bit of the pain still persevered.

"Thanks, that wasn't so hard now was it." Sayo taunted as she slowly sat up.

"Shut up." Lubbock stated as he put away the cream. Then instead of going back up the staircase and whatever was behind the door, he walked over to the couch and sat down on the other side of the it. Most people would have definitely collapsed on the couch, but Lubbock did not. In fact, it seemed as though it was the opposite. After Lubbock sat down it seemed as though he had tensed up and he did not utilize the back of the couch opting to instead lean on his legs with his arms.

"What's your name?" Lubbock asked as he exhaled loudly. Somehow, it seemed as though that tiny question was not the one that had made him tense up. No, he was likely building up to it. Sayo looked over at the green haired person and smiled a little bit, she had been told a lot about the people from the Capital, but he seemed nothing like what she had thought he would be like.

"Sayo." She said short yet not in any way curt.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Sayo, how would you like to play a game of chess?" Lubbock asked as he looked over a Sayo sincerely. Sayo tilted her head ever so slightly to try and decipher what exactly he was playing at. Either he was beating around a ton of bushes or he had a different goal than he had when he sat down. Maybe he was indecisive. She thought for a brief second while looking at him but came to no conclusion. However, none of that had any effect on whether or not she was going to play chess, there was no universe at which she would ever turn down a chance to beat someone at chess.

"Absolutely." Sayo said as she shifted into a more alert position.

They end up playing a lot then just one game of chess. In fact, they had played at least ten times and their scores were four and five respectively. Ad much as she would love to be the person with six wins, she was not. However, she had finally found someone who not only matches her skill but surpasses it. All of the games were fairly close with her even having to force a statement in one of them. She had not thought him to be that great at chess in the first game but after he had trade off most of his pieces, he surprised her and put her into a checkmate while neither her queen nor knights could do anything. Needless to say, but she was careful not underestimate Lubbock in the slightest.

"Bet you've never faced a master tactician before." He said as he cleaned up the chess board. The board that they played on was nearly immaculate with exception of some dust that he easily cleaned off. Compared to her chess board, this one was a clear step up. Her's had been handcrafted and even though she had a lot of great memories failing at craving, it had reached the end of its days. In fact, one of the first things that she wanted to buy was a new chess board.

"Well I have to go now, as much as I would like to play chess with you all day, I actually have a business and a life, it isn't exactly the best thing for sales when I don't sell anything." Lubbock said as he stood up and stretched. She heard several of his bones crack as he stretched, not exactly the most pleasant thing to hear. "Hey that boy who was with you, where did he get his weapon?" So, his aim was to get information out of her, he was a tricky chess player and she doubted that he wasn't tricky in anything else. As to thought for a brief moment about not telling him but as he had distracted her quite well from what happened, he deserved something.

"First you answer my questions." Sayo demanded as she stood up. She noticed a sigh come out of Lubbock, but she could tell he had already caved. In the later matches, after Sayo had gained the slightest understanding of Lubbock's strategy; she had found his one tell. If he did not want to do something, he sighed before reluctantly doing it.

"Okay okay, what do you want to know?" Lubbock resigned.

"First of all, where am I?" Sayo asked as she looked around at her surroundings. There were no windows, so it was underground but apart from that she had no clue where she was.

"This does not go passed you okay?" Lubbock's expression suddenly turned serious, as if this was a serious topic. Personally, Sayo thought this was the easy out of the batch of questions she had but apparently it was already off to a hard start for him. Sayo nodded her head and Lubbock continued on. "We're underneath my bookstore in the Capital." Lubbock stated, that was a solid answer.

"This place a secret then?" Sayo wondered aloud and Lubbock confirmed here suspicions. "Why do you need a secret room?" Sayo asked.

Lubbock sighed deeply. "Have you seen how the state of things were out in the Capital and Empire as a whole?" He responded to her question with another question. Gone was carefree yet calculating attitude that he had during their games of chess. Now he was only serious.

"Yes, the empire attacked my village." Sayo nodded her head solemnly. She missed her two friends, not matter how annoying they were. They were her friends and she wanted them back now. Ieyasu, in all of his flaws, was a great friend.

"That's all too common these days. With the age of turmoil, we are in we can never be too safe and that's why I built this lair. For whenever I need to hide people such as yourself."

"I never did get to thank you for all that you did." Sayo said with a smile, it was weak but still present.

"Don't mention it love." Lubbock stated jokingly as he stood up. "I really have somewhere to be though and as much as you probably need me here, I have to go. I have two more of these pain medication pills which should get through the next couple of days and the cream is right here, take as much as you need. If you would when exiting, make sure to move the bookcase back in front of the entry way and make sure the door handle is locked before you leave." Lubbock paused as he went through his mental checklist. "And yeah. I'll see you around then Sayo." Lubbock smiled as he turned around.

"Lubbock." Sayo called after him and Lubbock turned around, his green eyes glimmering in the light. "The weapon we had; we stole it off of one of the dead bodies of an Empire soldier. He was right by the General's side so he must have been someone important." Sayo stated, she felt like he deserved an answer. Lubbock's face turned serious as absorbed the information.

"Thank you, you have no clue how much you have helped me today." Lubbock stated before he walked out. Sayo did not know what that meant but something about that weapon was important and she was going to find out.

Once he left and she was able to gain most of her motor functions back, she pocketed the pills and a conservative amount of the cream before she exited the secret lair. She looked around the bookstore and was slightly impressed. For someone who was as awkward as he was, Sayo was impressed that he seemed to have a functioning business. It was not the biggest room, but Lubbock had a decent collection of books, more than she had ever seen in her life. Looking outside, Sayo saw that it was dark outside, had she slept almost an entire day. No matter, she should leave his bookstore before anyone notices that there is some random person in the bookstore at night. That might seem a little bit suspicious. After a couple of long moments trying to get the bookshelf back to where it could cover up the entrance to the lair, she left the bookstore locked.

The Capital at night was much different than her village at night. It would been almost serene in a way and she could spend hours outside, guiding herself by the moonlight. However, there is no way that she would do that here. The buildings blocked most of the moonlight and the few streetlamps barely did anything. It was almost completely dark. Sayo wished that she could have grabbed a lantern or something, but the opportunity for that was long gone. Now all she could do was wander in the dark. Holding her knife close to her, Sayo traversed through the Capital with her guard up.

For what felt like hours, she slowly walked through the Capital until she came across what she thought was people jumping from building to building. At first, she just ignored them, but person after person jumped until she saw someone with vibrant green hair. Her first thought was Lubbock. Her second thought was that there were other people with green hair. Her third thought was that she had nothing better to do, she had been walking through the city for hours and had gotten now where. Lubbock had never steered her wrong, yet at least. Against her better judgement, she followed the building jumpers to what looked like a mansion.

She watched as the one she presumed to be Lubbock made a platform in the air out of what was apparently wire. Sayo stopped thinking about the logic of it as soon as it hurt her head. Then a purple haired lady snuck into the mansion. What were they doing there? For some reason Sayo did not think she was be there, so she took cover underneath some trees as she continued to watch the rest of the people that 'Lubbock' was with. The was what looked to be five other people up there, three of which who had weapons. None of them however looked like people to be trifled with. Then three guards emerged from the mansion with weapons.

"Those three are your targets Akame." That was definitely Lubbock, why were they attacking this house. The girl with long black hair gracefully fell off of the wire platform and hit the ground along with the giant man in a full body set of armor.

"Don't engage with her." One of the guards said but, in the instant, he said that she sliced his throat. He died in an instant. Then the giant man in armor threw his spear straight through one of the other guards. The last guard, outnumber and clearly out skilled, turn around and ran away only to be shot through the head by the little girl with pink hair. She wielded what looked to be a sniper, but it shot out something that was much more akin to an energy blast. Eyes wide, Sayo slowly tried to sneak off before a shot devasted the tree she had been standing by.

"I think it's the daughter." Sayo had not heard that voice before, but that really did not matter as she was already running as fast as she could to get underneath cover. Shot after shot nearly missed her as they continued to topple tress around her. If she wanted to survive then running was definitely not the option, she had to somehow get them to no she meant them no harm. Or she was not a target. They did not seem like the most ethical inclined people after all.

"Hey, stop shooting, I'm not with them." She had never been in this situation before, so she had absolutely no clue what people said to stop people from killing them, but there is a first time for everything.

"Only the guilty run." It was the same female voice from earlier.

"What about the completely scared?" Sayo yelled back and in response she got a hailstorm of energy bullets. It seemed as though the girl had completely abandoned trying to keep the trees protect. So much for trying to go green. Sayo continued to attempt remain out of harms way, but the girl would not relent.

"I'm with Lubbock." Sayo was really about to die and she kinda did not want to. She had two dead friends left to avenge after all.

"Come out slowly with your hands up." The girl stated and Sayo complied. "Hey Green, we got something here." A boy jumped off the platform and pushed his glasses back on his face. "Make sure this girl has nothing on here."

"Looks like this little pumpkin can't handle her own targets." This so called Green character laughed in such a manner that Sayo thought he was putting up a façade. With the such short pink little girl's reaction, it seemed as though that was the case. "Please stand still, otherwise, this might hurt." Green took out a whip and then, moving as though it were a snake, it shot at Sayo and patted her down until every single last one of her knives were on the ground. "Twenty four knives, and you thought I was overprepared." Green laughed as he pocketed each one of her knives. Then with his snake like whip, he bound her hands together and they walked back to the platform.

"Why have another weapon when you have a teigu?" The girl reasoned with him.

"Who is this." The blonde haired woman that she remembered from the tavern, and Lubbock had been with her. She was Leone, the person who Ieyasu was almost certain was trying to swindle them out of cash. Sayo was all of a sudden not too sure of Lubbock's company.

"She says she's-"

"Sayo? What are you doing here?" It was the green haired Lubbock.

"We don't have time to stay here Lubbock." Said the metal armor guy. He had a deep and masculine voice.

"Understood, come by my shop in the morning I'll show you the way out of the capital and you be on your way." Lubbock said as he patted her on her shoulder. Green's weapons had released their bindings.

"No, I won't rest until I get revenge for both of my friends." Sayo stated defiantly.

"Then I will try my best to give you information that will be help so if you could just-"

"We can't let her go now; she's seen all of our faces." Leone stated and all of them agreed with that. "So, we'll bring her with us, and we'll decide what to do with her later."

"Wait are you going to kidnap me."

"It's not kidnapping if you agree with us." Leone stated reasonably.

"What if I don't?"

"Now it's kidnapping." The black haired Akame stated as she walked in between of all of them. "Green bind her, Let's get going." She stated as all of them took off with her, with the obvious addition of the snake like whip coiling around her. Now she had gotten kidnapped. Was not in the way she had expected but ended up happening none the less.


	5. Kill the Mission

**So, there's a lot of difference between this and the source material but it is only going to alter what happened in the original. You guys should try and spot the differences.**

"You brought a teenage girl back to the base?"

"To be fair, it was Leone's idea and Akame made us do it." Lubbock was trying to reason his way out of this one, but he knew that there really was not much he could do to get out of this one. In all the time he had known her, this was probably one of the stupidest things that he had ever done.

"Excuse me, I'm still here." Sayo said hesitantly. All of the people that had kidnapped her were also there. The big chest blonde named Leone was standing by the wall. Black haired and red eyed Akame was patiently waiting. The guy who had been in the metal suit was now out of it and he was just as impressive. The purple haired lady seemed like she was lost in a daze. The small pink haired girl was leaning on her gun, obviously just wanting to leave. Green, the guy with the snake whip was patiently waiting also, but he seemed to steal looks at Akame from time to time. And Lubbock was in the center of all of them, currently being scolded by what looked like the leader of the group. With a metallic arm and an eye patch, she sat in quite the big chair with a banner of a black owl on yellow moon.

"Ah yes, forgive me, this is not a situation that I find myself in often. I am Najenda and as you could probably guess, I am the leader of Night Raid." She stated confidently as she looked around at the other people in the room. As soon as Najenda started talking to her, Lubbock exited from the center and went along the outside like the rest.

"What is Night Raid?" Sayo asked, she had never heard of that before.

"Man, you did find someone from the country didn't you Lubbo." It was the pink haired girl laughing. That seemed to be more of her natural state.

"Quiet Mine, and stop leaning on Pumpkin, we do not have the time to get you another set of add ons." Najenda's voice was not very loud or overly serious but it was clear that she had quite a lot of authority over everyone. Mine then proceed to lean her sniper against the wall and stand as she closed her mouth. "Now, where were we… Yes, Night Raid. We are the assassination and recon team stationed in the Capital of the Empire for the Revolutionary Army. Oh dear, you don't know much do you?" Najenda could clearly see the look of confusion on the young girl's face. "You've seen the state the country is in I presume. Well not everyone is agreeing with that and in the south, they have made an army that is currently growing at a massive rate. Once they are strong enough, they are going to attempt to take back the capital. Our goal is to clean up the Capital and provide the Army with intel." Najenda explained.

"You plan on overthrowing the government?" Sayo asked.

"Correct, we are slowly weeding out the corruption now and once the Army is ready, we can overthrow it."

"May I join?"

"Our path isn't those for the fate of heart, the things we have to experience, there's no going back once you start." It was Leone who spoke up this time, more serious than Sayo had ever heard her.

"I have lost everything that I held dear to me. The empire is what took away my village, my family, my friends… they must pay for what they have done." Sayo made up her mind, whether it was on her own, or with a group of people, she had to get revenge. For Tatsumi, for Ieyasu, for her village, she would not rest until she could sleep knowing that she had gotten revenge for them.

"We're not just recruiting people of the street, what makes you think you have what it takes to be one of the elite?" While Sayo did not like the tone of Mine's voice, it was a valid question. One that she did not have an answer to. However, before she could speak up, some one spoke up in her stead.

"When I first came across Sayo, she was with one of her friends facing off against who I believe to Dorothea, of the Ministry of Research. She took the boy, the one who had been wielding Belvaac. However, you and him beat the previous owner, correct, Daidara. Even if you were just half of the team that beat him, as someone who beat one of the three beasts, I believe she is more than qualified." Lubbock gave his opinion to everyone else in the room.

"I never thought I'd see the day one of the three beasts lost their life, and to someone without a teigu no less, that's very impressive." It was the man who had been in the full metal suit of armor.

"Then it has been decided, welcome to the path of damnation, Sayo." Najenda declared as she rose from her chair. "Lubbock, you'll analyze her fighting style and she'll be under your tutelage first, as you are the one who believes in her the most. Leone, find out everything you can on the whereabouts of Daidara. The rest of you know your missions. Meeting is adjourned." Najenda stated and all of them left in their own separate ways. Lubbock told her a few things but nothing of note before he chased after Najenda, and it was just Leone and Sayo left in the room.

"Don't worry about all of them, they get a little serious sometimes. You will fit right in in due course. Come on, big sis will show you the way to your room. Or at least, a guest room." Leone laughed as she put her arm around Sayo.

"What are all of their names?" Sayo wanted to make sure that she was right with everyone names. "I'm Leone, but call me big sis, Okay? The pervert is Lubbock. Najenda is our leader. Akame was the girl with black hair and Mine was the really short one. Sheele was the aloof purple haired one, Bulat was the tall muscular dude while glasses was Green. And that's everyone, just remember everyone's color associations and you'll be just fine. And here you are. If you need anything, I'm just one door back. No matter what time of night, I'm available cutie." Leone gave her one last squeeze before she went off to her room and as Sayo went to bed with a lot of thoughts in her head, the newest one being that she had just gotten hit on by Leone.

The bed was far more than one that Sayo had slept in back in her village and even though she had difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep was far too easy. So easy in fact, that even though she is normal an early riser, she oversleeps. And Lubbock had to come to attempt to wake her up. No amount of knocking would suffice so Lubbock, cautiously goes into her room only to ring a tuning fork right next to Sayo's ear. "OUCH, what was that?!" Sayo exclaimed as she practically jumped out of bed.

"A tuning fork, it's ten in the morning, meet me down in the training grounds in five minutes." Lubbock quickly escape her room before she was awake and able to notice just how awkward of a situation that was for him. For as much as he would have loved to be in a girl's room, it just felt wrong to enter Sayo's like that. It took Sayo just around five minutes to put on her clothes and get herself composed enough to go downstairs, but she made it. "Good, now that you're here, I want to test your combat abilities." Lubbock stated as he threw a knife to her. "Green said you had a lot of knives on you, is that your primary weapon?"

"Yes, though I am quite skilled with a bow, a short sword and hand to hand combat." Sayo stated. To prepare for their eventually leave from the village and to hunt danger beasts, all three of them had been trained in various weapons. Ieyasu stuck to mainly the heavy weapons, while Tatsumi stuck to swords and lances. While she had been mainly relegated to support, she wanted to make sure she could still hold her own if an enemy would approached her.

"We'll test those too, now give me your all. I am unarmed at the moment." Lubbock stated. Sayo knew that he was an excellent tactician and someone who was a lot smarter than he looked. He would find a hole threw her fighting style. Sayo needed to be unpredictable and flexible. She kicked off hard from the ground and ran at fast at Lubbock but the moment she went into a lunge, Lubbock took the offensive. Grabbing her arm, he swung her straight over him and knocked the breath straight out of her. "You're predictable and open."

"I'm used to fighting with more weapons." And in response to that Lubbock gathered a gave her the knives that she had journeyed to the capital with. Now she had no excuses, she was in her element. Using one of her daggers, she quickly threw it Lubbock who deflected it out of the way like it was nothing. There was no she would get to him from far away, she needed to close the gap. He only hand two hands, if he was overwhelmed, there was a way she could get a hit in. Kicking off the ground like she did last time, Sayo threw her dagger at the moment that she lunged the time before. Then she threw another one up as far she possibly could. Lubbock deflected the one she threw at him then took the opportunity to move in a step closer. Sayo attempted to stab him with the dagger she had in her hand but before she could, Lubbock grasped her head and slammed her into the ground again but this time Sayo was more prepared. She flung a knife at him which he barely had time to react against and then she tried to throw another, but he knocked it straight out of her hand with his foot. With his other foot, he placed it on top of her with just enough pressure so she could not move, and he grabbed the knife that was just about to fall directly on him.

"Impressive. Only if you moved faster you would have had me." Lubbock then help her up. "Now time to see your other skills." Sayo showed off her accuracy with a bow by hunting some danger beast. She did not shoot anything impressive, but she also never missed. Her sword was able to compete against Lubbock's for a short while but eventually faltered and her hand to hand combat was quickly taken down by Lubbock. In the end, Lubbock defeated her with every chance he got but he kept giving her helpful advice and by the days end, Sayo felt like she had gained something. Besides the bruises of course.

"I will have you train with Akame next, but I want Lubbock to continue to instruct you in hand to hand combat." Najenda told them at dinner after she had heard Lubbock's report for the day. Leone was currently gouging herself in all the food she could find but the rest of Night Raid was out on a mission. "And you Leone?"

"What Lubbock had suspected was correct. While the Ice queen is up fighting in the north, she did lose one of her three beasts. Daidara is now buried among the Imperial Armies most decorated officers." Then Leone went on to talk about someone named Orge and Gamal. Ogre had apparently been interrogating innocent civilians and killing them. Gamal would frame them for an illegal activity, usually something along the lines of rape or burglary, and Ogre would take them out without another thought to it. According to Leone, the woman that had told Her about this had given them quite the healthy amount of money in exchange for their lives. She had sold her body to get the money to avenge her dead fiancé. While Sayo could not imagine herself doing that, she knew that if she had been desperate enough, she would have done the same.

"Night Raid will accept the mission." Najenda declared after she had heard everything from Leone. There was no doubt that they were guilty, and the amount of money being offered was nothing short of generous. "I'll tell the rest when they get back about this."

"But we won't know how long they will take, can't we all do it." Sayo stated as she looked at Leone and Lubbock.

"My face is known to the capital, if you all want to take out the targets. Be my guest." Najenda stated as she put a cigar in her mouth a lit it on fire.

"Are you ready for your first mission?" Lubbock looked at Sayo. She clenched her fist and nodded. "Alright, your target is Ogre and Leone yours is Gamal. Meet me in the commercial district plaza in two hours. I'll gather intel and tell you where they are going to be." Lubbock stated as he put on his cloak and walked out of the base. Sayo gathered all of her weapons and arranged them in a fashion that she could find them all underneath a cloak. Nervous yet determined, Sayo walked to the Capital with Leone and met up with Lubbock right where he said he would be. Lubbock quickly told Leone everything about Gamal and she was off rather quickly. "Are you sure you can do this Sayo?" Lubbock looked at her seriously.

"Yes."

"He goes to bars this time of night, he'll be surround by a bunch of follow soldiers, so lure him out. Nothing specific but don't let anyone see your face. There should be a bunch of alleyways where you can face him." Lubbock smiled at her. "Good luck." He gave her a pat on the back while he walked off, presumably back to the base. There was something about his expression that find more emotion than he was giving off, but she could not quite place it. However, none of that matter, all that really mattered was Ogre. Steeling herself, she walked into the commercial district.

"Ogre-sama, I'd like to speak to you." She said in a whisper just loud enough for the tall swordsman to hear her.

"What is it, let's here it.'" Ogre stated confidently. This was not the man that she had been expected. She had expected him to be this cold devilish man but even though that was how he looked; his façade was very official.

Sayo's titled her head as if to look around everywhere, "I don't feel comfortable speaking of it here." Ogre seemed to get what she was getting at and he led her to an empty alleyway far away from the bustling commotion. They reached a grinding halt but Sayo still did not say anything.

"Come on, you can tell me here." And now came her bit.

"I'm begging you, please let me join the Imperial Guard, I'll do anything." Sayo got down on her hands and knees. "I have to earn money to send back to my village."

"I figured as much, follow the procedure like everyone else." That was not what she had been expecting, but it would suffice as he turned around and started to walk away from her.

"But with economy as it is, there is too much competition for someone like me to get in." Sayo grabbed her short sword.

"It's not my fault that you're weak!" Ogre yelled as he turned around, preparing to strike, but Sayo was one step ahead of him. She pounced at the opening and lunged passed him, inflict and slash on his side. While it definitely was not enough to kill, she drew blood. However, Ogre fell onto the ground as if unconscious. Knowing that he was not dead, she prepared him to get up. "Smart young girl, perhaps I could cut a deal for you." Ogre laughed as he jumped up from his skunk attempted and slammed his sword into the ground. It was forceful enough to displace the brick road. Using her daggers, she threw two of them at Ogre which he easily deflected. Then she jumped onto the wall and over his lunge at her. Ogre was far to powerful with a sword for her to take a direct approach, she would have to be creative. Taking one of her slightly bigger knifes, she stabbed the wall in between two of the breaks where it was weaker. She had an idea.

"You want to kneel in front of me again, I bet there is something you could do to make me forget about this entire charade." He swung his sword at her fast and hard and Sayo was just out of range. If she had been in range, she would have been sliced in two but since she had not been, it was time to carry out her plan. Sayo first launched a dagger as high up as she could and then she went to work. She ducked down to avoid his next horizontal slash and sprung off of the ground and on to the dagger she had stabbed into the wall. Knowing the integrity of the bricks would not hold her weight, she leapt into the air quickly afterwards. However, now she was above the knife and Ogre had to deal with that first. He knocked it out of the air with his fist but could only raise his sword to defend the attack that came next. Using gravity, Sayo swung just as hard as Ogre had done previously at her straight into his sword. Ogre's knees buckled a little bit and the force of the blow staggered him. Then Sayo stomped the handle of one of the blades she had thrown at Ogre to make it fly up into the air. Seamlessly, she caught it and threw it directly into Ogre's throat, ending him.

Quickly, Sayo collected all of the fallen daggers she had used and looked back at him. He had been nothing like what she had imagined in her head, but she had no doubt that he should be killed. Her first death by her own hands. Sayo wondered if Tatsumi and Ieyasu would have been proud of what she had just done. Would taking down foe after foe like this be enough to make up for the village that she had lost? She knew that this was the path that she needed to take, but would she be strong enough for it.

"Looks like the newbie isn't so new now, eh Lubbock." Leone laughed as she had a swing of her beer. She had gotten back just before midnight and reported her mission to Najenda before she was met with the congratulation committee of Leone and Lubbock. "And you were worried about her." Leone laughed again.

"You were?"

"I've seen many people lose their lives. I have been in Night Raid since it was first founded, before everyone but Najenda. This is a dangerous path. I've lost those close to me and I didn't want to lose you too." Lubbock smiled with quite the air of sadness to his tone.

"Lubbo always been a big softy, don't mind him. Here, have a drink." Leone laughed as she handed Sayo a glass of beer.

"I'm underage."

"And you killed someone today, so what? You've got to live a little." Leone egged her to drink and eventually Sayo gave in and it did not taste good at all. However, that did not stop her from drinking some more until eventually she did not know how much time had passed. Nor did she remember the events of the previous night. Lubbock snuck off sometime during the night, Sayo and Leone however, stayed up late until the passed out on the couch together. Not exactly what she had been expecting when she came to the capital, but given the turn of events, this was probably the best that could have happened.


	6. Kill the Brat

**You know, Imperial Arms is a grammar error in word and I don't know how to feel about that.**

"How often does this happen?" Sayo asked as they were all running out of the base. Lubbock had alerted all of them that there was what seemed to be bandits approaching from every direction. Sayo had been quite shocked that a group had found their location but apparently this happened rather frequently. With the price put on some of their heads, anyone would be well set for the rest of their lives.

"Not too often, besides they are usually bandits that get overzealous." Lubbock stated as he started to play around with his fingers. It seemed as though wherever he went, he was always wearing his gloves which controlled wires and a spool of threads on his back. Sayo had never seen him once pick up a weapon and actually use it.

"Which means we get to give them a nice beating." Leone slammed her fist together as she transformed. Her hair glowed as it grew more ferocious and her hands grew claws and her back a tail.

"Don't take too long Leone, I don't need to remind you of what happened last time you did." Akame stated blankly. Akame was the only member of Night Raid to have a normal weapon. She simply had a katana. Leone scowled as she took off in a different direction.

"What happened last time?" Sayo questioned Akame.

"Boss was informed that she took two minutes extra and she was on cleaning duty for a whole two months. And that was the time when Sheele was trying to learn how to cook." Green laughed remembering this as he took out his whip and used it as he grabbed branches and swung from tree to tree. His whip seemed to act as though it had no restrictions and the laws of physics did not simply apply to it.

"Incursio!" Bulat yelled out as the armor he had been wearing the night she had meet him appeared out of no where an incapsulated him as he jumped off into the forest.

"What was that?" Their weapons were far more advanced than the knives Sayo was using.

"Doesn't matter, follow me." Akame stated as she darted into the forest, and Sayo did her best to keep up. Barely being up to they made it to a river she saw three bandits scheming together. Not exactly the opponents of prime ability that Sayo wanted to face. It was exactly how Leone had described it.

"Last one to get a kill gets sloppy seconds." One of the bandits laughed but almost faster than Sayo could see, Akame rushed the bandits and with one simple slash, she killed all three of them, and then she sheathed her sword.

"Be faster, it's kill or be killed. If you give your opponent an opportunity to act, you're already losing." Akame stated as she walked off. Sayo could tell that there was a lot behind her, and she did not know exactly how she would get her talk about it. So, she did not even try, she just followed Akame back to base. For the rest of the day she got training from both Akame and Lubbock. Akame helped her get faster through endurance training at the request of Lubbock. While Lubbock helped her with her decision making and weapon efficiency. However, the next day she was supposed to learn recon from Mine. That would not have been a problem if Mine would get up on time, but she had not. Najenda had informed her that it was her job to get Mine as she was her boss.

"Mine get ready it's time we head out to the Capital." Sayo stated as she entered the sniper's room only to find out she was standing right in the middle of her room in her underwear. "I'll be downstairs when you're ready." Sayo exited immediately. She did not need to see that. After that, Mine was done in a couple of minutes and they both left for the capital at once. In her dreams she had always imagined the Capital to be this wonderful place where dreams prospered. Her, Tatsumi and Ieyasu were supposed to head to the Capital when they were all of age, to help out the village but seeing as what happen, she had gotten there a little bit early. Looking back on it now, they were all naïve kids, but it was an adventure to look forward to. Everyone in the capital looked like they were down on their luck and no one looked the slightest bit happy. She did not know much of why the Capital was the way it was. "What is making the country this way?" Sayo asked Mine.

"Mainly, the prime minister. The Emperor is a little kid while the Prime minister basically uses him as a pawn to do his bidding. He is the main center of corruption. Anyone that does not comply to how he runs things is killed off and anyone with money can easily skate friend, doing what ever they want. The upper class enjoys towering of the lower class, foreigners and country bumpkins like you. And anyone apart of the army of guard is either off fighting a war, or told to purge any likelihood of an insurrection, rather than against those who have illegal doings." Mine explained in a hushed voice as they walked around the capital.

"So, the prime ministers allows all the rapists and killers to run rampant." Sayo concluded in her head.

"Essentially, so we are just clearly out the capital so when the prime minister and his associates fall, the Capital won't be stuck in it's ways." Mine stated. Sayo knew that she was right but wish she could just end the prime minister's life right now. The two of them continued to walk through the capital, stopping to take some looked around at areas. She did not understand exactly what they were looking at but Mine seemed to know what she was doing so she just let her lead while she followed. It seemed as though the Capital was a massive place as she did not recognize any of it and they had not gone back to the same place a single time.

"What's this?" Sayo pointed at the wanted posters. She saw five of them there, but it did not make sense to her about how some of them were known to be apart of night raid as they were so efficient in their fighting.

"Wanted posters, each one of them is worth one hundred grand dead or alive. It's why you and I were sent instead of them, they can't walk around freely, we can." Mine said simply and Sayo realized that her question was not at all like what she was asking. Mine had talked to her as though she was a country bumpkin that did not understand much and while that was mainly true, she did know a fair bit now.

"I meant; how does the empire know about them." Sayo stated it in more understandable terms.

"I don't get that translation but alright. They know about Night Raid in general because we advertised ourselves a couple of times to scare criminals out of doing bad things. It did not really work as intend so we've stopped now. But they know Najenda and Bulat because they were in the army and they defected to join us, taking their respect imperial arms with them. Akame and Green were the same thing, but they were a part of the assassination squadron. Sheele had been ambushed by quite a lot of imperial soldiers and some imperial arms users and barely made it out alive." Mine seemed to remember the Sheele incident as though it was yesterday.

"What about the rest of you all?"

"Lubbock was also in the army, but he faked his death so that no one could trace him. Technically the pervert doesn't even exist. Leone was beating up people in the scums and she had an imperial arms so we brought her after we could be sure that we could trust her. And I was a part of the revolutionary army and rose through the ranks but since they deemed me not leadership material, I was assigned to Night Raid instead. I think it worked out for the best if you ask me." Mine laughed and they walked around a little bit and looked through windows of stores and talked a little bit about clothes before they had to head back to begin a mission. Their task this time was a high priority individual so Najenda wanted all of Night Raid to be on the mission. This is not the most frequent occurrence, but it seemed as though it happened a fair amount. They were to take down one of the Prime Ministers distant relatives. He had been using his name to take advantage of women and due to his high rank in society, he had a bunch of guards. The plan was for Mine to snipe him and for the rest of them except Sayo to kill the guards that were sure to pursue after them. Sayo was in charge of keeping Mine safe, just in case they ran into any trouble.

"I wish I could have been with the rest of them to show them that I can handle myself." Sayo clenched her fists. She could tell that some of them were unsure of having her as an official member of the team because she was not simply as strong as the rest of them, but she wanted to prove to them that she could hold her own at the very least. However, it was not very easy because while the rest of them seemed to have incredible weapons, Sayo was stuck with the knives that she had made herself. They did not exactly compare that well to each other.

"Don't get eager, you'll have your time greenie, just be patient. Everyone else in Night Raid has faced far more strife than you have. You've had two run ins with high skilled opponents. Everyone else here, they've had several. Don't take it to heart if everyone doesn't warm up to you like Leone and Lubbock do." Mine was right, but that did not make her want to prove herself any less. Mine took her gun off of her back and cleaned it off, making sure it was in perfect working order.

"I have never seen a weapon like that." Sayo stated as she watched Mine. All of the weapons in her village were just the simple wood and metal ones. She had heard a gun off in the distance a couple of times, but she spent the majority of her life with her weapons as the longest range you could attack from. But Mine's weapon was far more reaching and far more devasting too.

"This is no measly peasant weapon, this the Roman Artillery: Pumpkin." Mine stated confidently as she showed off her giant gun.

"You see it was really threatening until you said pumpkin." Sayo stated as she looked at the sniper and then back at Mine with a laughish smile. She had never been one to name her weapons but if she did there was no way that she would ever name it pumpkin, that was way too dumb.

"I'll show you just how powerful Pumpkin is, just you wait." Mine stated as she set up her post and once she was in position she immediately got into the zone. Nothing other than the entrance to the mansion was in Mine's mind, all of her focus was there. Sayo understood why they wanted her to go with Mine. While anyone else could do this job, it was most efficient to put their strongest members to intercept the guards wile she was just there to make sure Mine did not face any issues. Making sure Mine was not ambushed, Sayo stayed on high alert, making sure not even a mouse was able to sneak up on them. She did not know how much time had passed but without warning, Mine's weapon erupted as a bullet of pure energy flew threw the air and shot into a crowd of people. At the distance she had shot from, Sayo would have definitely hit someone else but Mine only hit one person. The target. "See, I'm a genius sniper." Mine said smugly as she brought up her gun and rest it on her shoulder as if she was posing for a photo.

"Self-inflated ego is what you are." Sayo laughed as they began to walk back to the meeting point. Their job was basically done know but everyone else's job was just beginning.

"Hey, I got Pumpkin because I was the best of the best, not out of sheer luck. I earned this gun." Mine stated proudly once more. She was probably the most outwardly proud member of Night Raid and judging from her skills it was at least somewhat justified. While Sayo had been more impressed with Akame's showcase of skills, Mine definitely still stood on her own.

"What even is your gun, it looks like no other weapon I have seen before." Sayo asked Mine as she looked over at the gun once more. She would have no qualms wielding something like that. With the firepower that it had, she could have saved Ieyasu and maybe even Tatsumi but now she would just have to settle getting revenge with it. Besides, it was a lot better than her bow and arrows. Sayo had managed to get at least this far with her weapons, she deserved an upgrade by this point.

"This honey is an imperial arms, something forged directly in the Capital. One of the strongest weapons ever made." Mine patted Pumpkin.

"An imperial arms, where could I get one?" Sayo asked Mine. She had heard a lot about these so called imperial arms, but no one had given her soo much as an explanation yet as to what they were. All that she knew at this point was that they were incredibly powerful, and it seemed as though every member of Night Raid had one. Except her. Maybe that was why they were all soo much more powerful than her.

"We don't just have these legendary artefacts to hand out. I doubt you would be able to use any of the ones we have, nor the revolutionary army has." Mine simply stated as if she was trying to elevate her status from greenie to member too fast.

"So, where did you all get yours then?" Sayo asked Mine.

"Various places. As I said before, imperial arms are from the Capital so everyone that defect from the capital had an imperial arm given to them. Elite squadrons and generals get them. Bulat, Najenda, Lubbock, Akame and Green all got their Imperial arms from the capital. I got mine from the revolutionary army as did Sheele and Leone just lucked out by buying it off the blackmail. Or at least, that's what she says the story was." Mine shrugged. It seems that all of them lucked into getting one much like Ieyasu got one. However, her luck was not as great as the rest of them. She was still armsless.

"So, I still have a long way to go to catch up to all of you." Sayo stated, sighing.

"Correct greenie, you're getting it." But before Sayo could respond a figure came out of nowhere and body slammed Mine into a near by tree. Immediately, Sayo whipped out a knife and threw it at the attacker, but he simply knocked it out of the way. Sayo jumped back to avoid him grabbing her and his attacking stopped.

"I'll get you back, can't have some killing Prime Minister Honest's relatives so easily." He cracked his knuckles as he knelt down to prepare himself.

"You have been really skilled to avoid the other members of our group." Mine said as she stood, whip her face off from all the dirt.

"You're right, I am a trained member of the Imperial Fist, even made it up to being an instructor." The man stood tall and firm as if to show off all of his powers. However, Mine was unphased by this.

"You're not there anymore?" Mine smirked.

"Observant, I got kicked out for misconduct." He laughed as he ran at Mine. Taking Pumpkin, Mine shot as main energy bullets as she possibly could but for some reason not a single one landed their mark. The man was just too agile. With one of her daggers, Sayo threw a dagger right in front of his face stopping his assault. Then Sayo rushed at him with her short sword and once she was close enough, she jumped and tried to slice down to cut his head, but he caught the blade in between his two hands. "Haha, gotcha." His grin stretched across his face but Sayo let go of the sword as his eyes widen. Then with a strong punch, she hit him right in the guy, knocking all of the air out of him. Sayo then jumped up and kicked him across the face, knocking him to the ground. But before she could get the finishing blow, an energy beam stole it from her.

"Hey, I almost had him!" Sayo had just taken out her knife and was about to land her finisher.

"I needed to get him back for attacking me, I can't let him get away with hitting me." Sayo had the strange urge to hit her and get away with it but something told her Mine would still have a way to get her back. "Alright, come on, we need to meet up with the others." Mine stated. Sayo collected her weapons then caught up to Mine and eventually met up with the others. Once they were sure they were not being followed, they went back to base and met up with Najenda and told her everything.

"Nice job everyone, I'm glad that it all went well. As much as I would like to give you some time to rest, we have an urgent mission. There is a serial killer in the capital. Her comes out at night and decapitates people. There is no telling how many people he has killed." Najenda started to tell them. The work of an assassin was really without any rest. It was either you were on a mission or training, nothing else.

"A third of his victims have been guards." Green stated as he pushed up his glasses. This was clearly a strong opponent.

"We've definitely got Zank, the Beheader on our hands." Lubbock stated.

"Who is that?" Sayo asked. Honestly by this point she needed a run down of just about every important person inn and outside of the capital but that was impossible with the amount of training she was doing right now. She was trying with Lubbock, and Akame, and when she could, she also trained with Bulat. He was the one who had taught her a great deal of her endurance training.

"You don't know, just how far out did you live." Even after a whole day with her she was still talking to him like he was a kid.

"Excuse me, I don't know who he is either." Sheele had raised her hand.

"You've probably just forgotten Sheele." Mine sighed. "Zank the Beheader used to be an executioner at the Empire's biggest prison. The Prime Minister held so many executions day after day that it turned into his vice. Soon enough, beheading people in the prison was not enough so he turned to the streets."

"He vanished as soon as subjugation squad was formed. I never expected him to show up in the capital." Bulat stated as if he had some previous experience with him. "He stole the warden's Imperial arms before he left, he's going to be a terribly strong foe."

"Hey boss, do we know what Imperial Arms Zank is using?" Mine asked.

"Unfortunately, we are still looking into that one." Najenda replied.

"What exactly is an Imperial arms." It seemed like a good time as any to finally ask the question.

"A weapon like this." Akame unsheathed her katana and showed it to Sayo but that did little to help what Sayo had asked.

"Alright, let's fill Sayo in." Najenda began. "Roughly a thousand years ago the Emperor who had just found this Empire was troubled. He wanted to make sure it would last so he created these weapons. He gathered all of the renowned scientist and artisans at the time and gathered the rarest of materials from all around. With all of his power and wealth he created forty eight weapons, these weapons were called Imperial arms. All of these weapons were equipped with powerful abilities. Some could wipe out entire armies. Anyone with one of these weapons had great success on the battlefield. However, nearly half of the imperial arms were scattered during a civil war one hundred years ago. That is the story." Najenda finished.

"So, her sword is one of the forty eight."

"Correct, Swordbreaker: Kiriichimonji. It can phase through any metals." Akame told him of her imperial arms then everyone else seemed to follow suit.

"The King of Beasts Transformations: Lionelle. It is a belt shaped imperial arms that allows me to increase my physical prowess while giving me animalistic characteristics and an increased healing factor. It also heightens my sense, perfect for recon." Leone stated as she touched her belt.

"Roman Artillery: Pumpkin. This gun type imperial arms fire energy in the form of shockwaves, the more danger the user is in, the more powerful it is." Mine displayed her pride and glory.

"Demon Armor: Incursio. An armor type imperial arms, it is known for its impregnable defenses. It is so powerful that the strain it puts on the user will kill any normal human." Bulat summon his armor again.

"Viper's mouth: Sidewinder. A whip type imperial arms, it allows it's user to manipulate the whip and allow it to do things outside the realm of natural physics." Green had his whip slither across the floor.

"Infinite uses: Cross Tail. This resilient wire based imperial arms can be used to lay traps to warn its user when foes are approaching. Able to trap or mutilate, it's just as versatile as its name suggests." Lubbock heled up his hand and showed the wires.

"Cutter of Creation: Extase. They are scissors. They can cut anything in half and is sturdy enough to use for defense." Sheele brought out her giant pair of scissors.

"Some of the imperial arms have trump cards, Incursio for instance can give its user brief invisibility for a time." Bulat appeared right behind Sayo. "There is an ironclad rule that if two imperial arms users clashed with intent to kill, one of them would die. In other words, someone will die on this mission."

"We've revealed our hand now, you're stuck with us forever." Lubbock teased Sayo.

"I thought I already was."

"Don't worry Sayo, it means Boss has recognized you as part of the team, you've finally proved your worth to all of us." Leone said with a glance at Mine.

"With all of these weapons, we are the heart of the revolution which is why we can't let another individual run around with one." Najenda stated. "And once we have an Imperial arms, you're compatible with, we'll give it to you." Najenda looked at Sayo. Sayo looked down at her weapons, but for now it seemed she was stuck with the weapons she had. She would have to rely on the might of others.


	7. Kill the Beheader

**Got to admit, Lubbock is my favorite character**

"Stay alert." Lubbock stated as Sayo darted from alleyway to alleyway with them. The entirety of Night Raid were on the mission to subdue Zank and her and Lubbock had been paired together. Akame and Green were paired to each other as they had they longest history between each other. Sheele and Mine were together as they worked incredibly well off of each other and got along quite well and Bulat and Leone were together because of their synergy together. Being two close combat fighters, they had created a variety of different methods to gain the upper hand on opponents. That left just Lubbock and Sayo together, which was perfectly fine with Sayo. She trusted Lubbock the most out of anyone in Night Raid anyways. "Here." Lubbock handed her a sandwich and a drink. "Akame wanted to make sure we were all well feed and I did not think you would think to grab food for a mission."

"Oh… thank you." Sayo had to admit she had been getting a little thirsty and a small bit of food never hurt anyone so they both ate their sandwiches in a secluded highway. As the Empire was also trying to find Zank, they had to remain hidden as to avoid any potential run in with guards. While they could easily take down a guard, there was no need to make more causalities than necessary. They finished their sandwich and continued to move around the squadron of the city they had been given. The Imperial Capital was quite massive so the area that each pair had to cover was far bigger than they could cover in a short amount of time. Lubbock suggested that they remain together as she did not have an imperial arms, and Sayo agreed. She did not like having to rely on the power of others, it seemed as though she had no choice in this scenario. Until she got one of her own, she was simply not as strong as the others. However, that would not stop her determination. If Zank really had an imperial arms, then she could use his once he was taken care of.

"I need, to go to the bathroom." Lubbock stated as he walked away from into a separate alleyway. While they were supposed to stay together, there was no way that she wanted to be anywhere near Lubbock when he went to use the bathroom. So Sayo, stood in a nearby alley waiting for him when she saw a figure approach her at the end of the alleyway. While she thought it was Lubbock at first, the brown hair said otherwise. However, this person was still green eyed.

"Tatsumi!" She could recognize those eyes and hair from anywhere, what was he doing here? It felt like it had been ages since she had seen him, and he seemed so really. She rubbed her eyes to make sure she was not dreaming. He was still there. Sayo stood up and started to walk towards him but the moment she did, he turned around and ran, so she ran after him. Barely on his trail, she finally caught up to him in the middle of what looked to be a town square. Everything looked different at night, so she had no way of knowing if she had been here before but none of that mattered. All that mattered was that Tatsumi was here, she had missed him soo much. Wrapping her arms around him, she could feel the warmth radiating off of him, he was really there.

"Aren't you a passionate one." Suddenly it was not Tatsumi in front of her, but it was giant dude. His teeth glistened in the moonlight as he cackled and Sayo jumped back. "I've got to say, I must have shown you something you hold dear. Goodnight."

"What, but? I thought you were Tatsumi." Sayo was confused, there should be no way to make something feel that real in this world.

"Tatsumi, Eh? I am no Tatsumi, please called me this instead. And speak to me like you just did. Zank, The Beheader." Out of his sleeves came out katars, short blade like weapons he could wield as easy as it was his own fist. Standing easily taller than her, she had no doubt in her mind that this was Zank, everything about him screamed it.

"So, you're Zank then. I expect someone more threatening." Sayo laughed as she pulled out two daggers.

"Mockery in the face of danger. "If I wait for the partner, he led me away from, but can I hold him off for that long?" That's what you're thinking, right, right?" Zank laughed in the moonlight of the crimson moon. Sayo looked him up and down, the weird third eye on his forehead must be his imperial arm, everything else looked normal enough. "Bingo! You're smarter than most. It is an imperial arms. One of it's five gifts is insight; I can tell what someone is thinking based off of their facial expressions. It makes me observant to an extreme. Would you like a reward for your guessing?" He said sarcastically. "Yes, I do talk a lot, Talking is my hobby. For the record, I used far sight to find you. It doesn't matter the distance or condition; I can see everything." Sayo threw her knife at him but he easily just dodged it. "Isn't it just wonderful? Were you hoping to land a hit while I was talking? Not going to happen. I know your every thought." Zank laughed.

Sayo jumped forward to attack. "You're going to throw to knives to slow me down." Both of the knives easily were deflect by Zank's katars. "Then you're going to pull a sword out and quickly slash upwards." Sayo did just that, he could truly read her mind. "Then with gravity, you're going to do a hard smash. Which is just a feint to get in a roundhouse kick." Zank's katar cut across the flesh of Sayo's lower leg as he avoided her attack and she went tumbling on to the ground but quickly recovered herself. "That's what you were thinking about, wasn't it?" Zank asked rhetorically. He was soo much more powerful than anyone Sayo had actually faced. Zank reminded her soo much of the sense of hopelessness against Daidara, but now she was alone. No one there to help her. "When I behead people, they make the best expression ever. You would be surprised by how shocked they look. They're like Eh? I wonder what expression you will make. Truly wonderful, Wonderful." Zank laughed again

"Like you'll find out." Even though with every step she felt her leg echo pain throughout her body, she persisted. Sayo threw another dagger at him before she took off at him, using every single slash of her sword to connect to another one. Fluid actions, that was what Akame had been telling her. The faster she moved from one action to the next, the less time her opponent had. Then she let go off her sword with her left hand for one moment to throw a dagger straight at Zank who deflected it and hit her sword hard, knocking it out of her hand.

"I thought you were being straight forward; I would have liked you more if you were straight forward." Then Zank punched his katar straight into Sayo's arm. "Wonderful, wonderful. It's been a while since someone has put up a fight like you." He flung her off his katar and onto the ground. The wound was incredibly deep, but it seemed to have avoid her bones. "I must say, I've messed you up quite good." Zank stated as he looked at the wound her had just inflicted. Sayo could barely move that arm without feeling soo much pain that it blinded all of her other senses. "You know, it's music to my ears when people with soo much determination in their eyes start begging for their lives. That's why I have taken my time with you. Now, Starting begging for your life." Zank laughed mockingly. "Maybe it might buy enough time for your partner to finally show up."

"Like I'd do that, I would rather die." Sayo took out a knife. She could not do much, all she had was her right arm and her left leg uninjured, the longer she used the others, the faster she'd black out. There was no way she would let herself die here. All of her village, they had all died, she was the last one. The legacy of her village lived on through her, she would not let the first imperial arms user to come across her take her life. Her village had raised her to been stronger than that. Sayo kicked off with her legs, even though one of them was injured, there was no other way. Despite the immense pain, she rushed at Zank with nothing but a knife. Knowing her right leg would soon collapse, Sayo pushed off of the ground hard with her left leg and flew at Zank. Then she threw her dagger right his thigh, which it hit. She had not planned for that, she had not planned for anything, her mind was going haywire with adrenaline and pain. It was an in the moment decision. However, her attack did not go untouched as Zank's katar ripped through her side and she hit the ground with a muffled thud. Even with all of her strength, she could not get up. Those three wounds were enough to ground her. But before Zank dealt the finishing blow, she felt her body get flung up in the air and she landed in Lubbock's arms.

"You did well, rest now, I can handle him." Lubbock put Sayo down on the ground as he used his wires to do some field stitching. It was nothing great, but it would keep her in a stable condition. That was all he could do without his med kit after all. Only if he had not gone to the bathroom, she would have been safe, but that was no matter now. She was safe as long as he dealt with him. "Zank I presume." Lubbock approached the Beheader.

"The Imperial Arms Cross Tail, you must be a part of Night Raid then." Zank concluded as he saw the wiring that Lubbock was wearing around his body. It was a body armor of some sort. Since he did not know what type of opponent Zank would be, he prepared in the most defense manner. However, seeing the eye on his forehead, he knew exactly who he was facing. "Finally, I get to face a master assassin. Not the person from Night Raid I wanted to meet, but I'm sure I'll end up meeting all of you at some point." Zank laughed.

"And You have the Imperial Arms Spector. I have to say, not the matchup I was hoping for." Lubbock stated, as he started to mess around with his wires.

"A master tactician versus someone who can read you mind and thoughts, you ought to concede now. If you do, I might even spare you and your parent's life." Zank laughed as he pulled off his out coat as if he was getting ready to have real duel. As if the fight against Sayo was just training.

"Night Raid does not run from a foe." Lubbock stated as he tightened his fist and an instantly two huge wire poles form and tried to squash Zank, but he avoided both of them.

"I can read your mind; did you forget that already." Zank laughed, he clearly had the advantage when it came to weapons. However, that did nothing to stop Lubbock as he sprint at Zank and made a wire spear at the same time but Zank both avoid his dash and his spear and Lubbock was forced to unravel is spear. He would have to set up for the long haul. Lubbock unravel both his spear and the two long poles he had made and started to cover the town square. "That won't help you, I can tell ever single plan you have even before you have them." Zank laughed as he said in place. It was clear that Lubbock would have to take the offensive. Once again Lubbock dashed at Zank put this time he went into a flying kick but Zank both avoided the kick and the bait and instead tore a long but shallow cut across Lubbock's back. Lubbock needed to think of something and fast because he could not keep expended his energy like this. "Nothing can get passed me, I can read your facial features." Zank laughed as though he had the upper hand, but Lubbock found a loophole. Using some of his wires he fashioned a wire mask and then another wire mask to lay over top of that one. He could not see through the two masks, but neither could Zank. "Smart young one, making two masks not only to counter my insight but also my clear sight. But I can still predict your movements off your muscles and now you can't see. Such a great disadvantage to take away just one of my advantages.

Lubbock knew that he could not see and that Zank's imperial arms would not be completely countered by this strategy, but this was all he could do. He had to change up the playing field and no he could come up with a plan. The only downside was that he could not see. Thanks to his grid of wires he had laid on the ground, he knew exactly where Zank was and determine on pressure, he could tell what leg he was standing on more. That was all that he knew, he needed to figure out everything else. Even though he could not see, Lubbock took off at Zank at top speed. Using his grid of wires, he launched himself into the air and then right where Zank was standing, he threw his wire spear again but Zank had avoided it. Loosening his fist, the spear unraveled in every direction and yet they still did not find a hit.

If he had wanted to, he could use the grind to try to bind Zank to one spot but that would take too many wires for Zank not to notice and get out of before he was permanently stuck. He still had to get Zank to touch one of his schemes but before he could attack again, a dagger flew straight into his shoulder, through the bone. The dagger was lodge just perfectly enough that taking it out would result in further damage. Pain shoot throughout his body. While he wished he had all the time in the world to come up with a plan, it was now or never.

He dashed at his opponent, whether this was the right decision or not, he did not know. Using the wires on the ground, Lubbock just made Zank's balance unstable enough that he could move as freely as he would have liked to. Then using the far outside of his grid, he bundled together a bunch of the wires to create a perimeter, then made it so it slow came in. If he had a time limit, Zank would too. Lubbock took some oh his few remaining string left and threw his spear at Zank but Zank seemed to not be where he was standing. Hoping that he had just ducked, Lubbock continued with his course of action. Since the spear had not hit a target, Lubbock could unravel but this time, instead of making it explode into a wire trap, he turned it into a pulley, which pulled him towards Zank at high speeds. Now he could feel Zank's presence, he was no longer hiding it anymore.

Confident in his plan now. Using the back half of the perimeter, the side closest to himself, Lubbock unraveled it and it come back to him. His plan would need a lot more wires than he currently had with him. Then with the few wires on the ground near Zank, Lubbock fashion and trap of sorts. While it was nowhere near the unescapable ones her prided himself in so much, it would be enough to keep Zank there for now. With his pulley system, Lubbock flew at Zank fast than before feet first. Lubbock felt his foot slam into the side of Zank's face, but a second later, his leg exploded in pain as Zank's katar went through the few wires there. He did not have enough to protect his whole body, so he protected his vital parts. However, this was his plan. The moment Zank's katar went into Lubbock's leg, Lubbock used his wires not only break off Zank's katar but also crawl up his arm and attack him as much as possible.

Everly wounded, Lubbock used the few wires he had to patch up his leg and make it so he could at least stand on it, but that meant he used the wires that had been blocking Zank's sight. He could see again, they both could. Drenched in blood, Lubbock could barely stand but looking at Zank he was about in the same position as he was. Lubbock's wires had clawed their way into Zank's body, and his arm was consistently dripping blood. Small wounds ran across his whole entire body. The attacked had done as much damage to Zank's body as it did Lubbock's. The only reason Lubbock could even stand was because he was dedicating a good amount of his wires to supporting him. "You are going to bleed out, might as well concede now." Lubbock's breaths were labored, he would not remain awake for much longer.

"Say, how do you deal with the voices?" Zank seemed to hold fast to his hobby, but Lubbock had no idea of what he was talking about. "If you listen when it's quiet you can hear the voices, the people in hell are groaning, the ones I killed. They hate me. They're constantly telling me to hurry up and join them. I have been able to hear them ever since the we began holding executions everyday in the prison. But no, it's worse. I talk to pretend I don't hear them. How do you deal with the voices?" Zank asked Lubbock.

"I've never heard a voice like that, I think it means your weak at heart." Lubbock managed a laugh.

"Pity, I thought that since you were an assassin, we could share the same pain, so sad." Then the eye on Zank's forehead started to glow green and Where Zank was, Najenda replaced him. As beautiful as the day he had met her. The silver hair glistening in the crimson moonlight and the purple eyes he had known so well, shining through the darkness. This was a sight that he would have gone through so much to see, but that was the problem, he had already done so. Najenda brought up Pumpkin from her side and the energy blast was about to fire, Lubbock made a wire shield in front of him and Zank's other katar, was caught in it. With the illusion shattered, Lubbock wrapped the shield around Zank and pulled it tight, crushing him and instant. Tired beyond compare, Lubbock did all he could to remain awake but just as a couple figures were approaching, he lost consciousness.

"She's awake, her drink some water." Sayo opened her eyes to look at a couple of people in front of her. Instantly she made out Mine because of her hair but then she saw Bulat, Leone and Sheele all crowded around her.

"Thank goodness you're alright." Sheele stated relieved, and that made Sayo remember all of what happened.

"What happened to Lubbock, is he okay?" Sayo tried to get out of bed but Bulat stopped her.

"Easy there you have to give your body a little bit to rest, it had just been through a lot and even though your wounds are not major, Boss has ordered you to stay in bed for a couple of days." Bulat made sure Sayo laid back down on her bed.

"The pervert will be fine. He will be stuck in his bed a lot longer than you; he maintained some pretty serious injuries, but he will be fine. Besides, with all the attention he is getting I doubt that he will care all that much." Leone laughed and Sayo wonder what she was referencing but those worries were instantly cast aside in exchange for Lubbock.

"I wish, I had been strong enough to help him." Sayo looked down at her hands. They were bandaged.

"You lived to fight another battle, that's all that matters." Bulat stated proudly, but it did not make her feel any better.

"You're an official member now, remember. Don't fret about the little stuff, besides, you're with me while Lubbock is on bed arrest. I'll make sure you get stronger, we all will." Mine looked at all of them and they all smiled back at Sayo. It was beginning to feel like she had gotten a family. A family of assassins no less.


	8. Kill the Training

**This chapter was actually really fun to write**

"Will he be okay?" Sayo looked down at Lubbock how was still confided to his bed. She had been just cleared to move around and the first thing she wanted to do was see Lubbock. He had very nearly lost his life to save her.

"Yes, he will be, multiple broken bones will keep him in bed for a while, but he'll make it out of this, he's stronger than at first glance." Najenda stated as she looked down at her subordinate. It was obvious to Sayo that she cared for him more than she did the rest of them. Not that it was a bad thing, it was probably due to all the history that they had together.

"You've known him long right?" Sayo asked, she had heard a lot about everyone, but she had not really gotten anyone's full backstory yet.

"He was my right hand man when I was a general in the Imperial army, I met him before that and we rose through the ranks together, got our imperial arms together. I trust him with my life." Najenda smiled as she reminisced about the times of her in the Imperial Army and meeting Lubbock and all of the good times. Honestly, she did not know what she would have done if he had not followed her, but she was forever grateful that he did.

"When Zank used his Illusion sight, it was you that was shown to him." Sayo said as she looked at Najenda but once again Sayo could not grasp what emotion went through her boss's head after she said that.

"That is expected… You'll be training with Sheele today, you know, that right?" Sayo nodded. "Okay good, and once you come back from that the entirety of Night Raid will have a meeting." Sayo nodded again then went off to go find Sheele and left Najenda and Lubbock alone. She figured that they would probably appreciate it, or at least it would give Najenda some time to think. Even though it was a hidden base, Night Raid's base was quite large, and it took forever to locate where Sheele was as she was not in all of the normal places. However, once she found her it made sense. Sheele was in a random hallway, on the ground, fumbling around for her glasses.

"Here you go." Sayo picked up her glasses and gave them to Sheele.

"Oh, thank you." Sheele got on to her feet and almost immediately lost her balance but Sayo caught her before she hit the ground. "Oh, thank you." Sheele repeated herself as she began to walk off.

"Hey Sheele, aren't you supposed to be training me?" Sayo asked as she looked over at the purple haired assassin.

"I don't remember." Sheele scratched her head.

"Well Boss told me you were so we should probably do that." Sayo stated. Sheele really was an air head. The two of them walked to the river before Sheele sighed, saying that she had left the armor she had needed so they walked back and grabbed it before coming back to the river. Then Sayo put on the armor and jumped into the river and started to swim against the current. This was what Sheele's idea of training was and honestly, Sayo did not know what else she would have done but this took Sayo way too long to do as it was quite possibly the most exhausting training that she had been through at the moment. Bulat's were quite exhausting but it was not like she was using every bone in her body like she did with swimming. And the armor just made it ten times harder.

"Congratulations, you made it." It had almost taken Sayo about two hours to do this and the entire time Sheele had been reading a book about how to clear being an airhead. At least she was aware of her flaws. "I do not have any chores, so I read our training plans and this one seemed like the one you needed most."

"What exactly was this supposed to help with." Sayo was not quite sure what it was for.

"Well I think if you are training yourself to be able to do it when you're heavy, it'll be a lot easier when you are lighter?" Sheele was not exactly quite certain with the logic she had just presented but Sayo did see the thought process and it looked solid enough.

"Sheele, why don't you have any chores?" Sayo asked as she sat down on a rock near Sheele as she took in deep breaths. Then Sheele's glasses fell off her face again so she caught them even though she was really tired thanks to the armor.

"Oh, thank you." Sheele put her glasses back on. "Well when I joined Night Raid, they tried to give me a chore. First, they put me with Akame, and I burnt her meats." Akame was a really big meat person and almost every single meal she made had meat in it, maybe sometimes it had multiple different types of meat. Sayo could see how this would be a problem and how she would never bet on cooking again. "Then I was put on cleaning duty with Bulat and I made more of a mess than I could clean up." Sayo could just imagine Sheele tipping over mop buckets and spilling them everywhere. "When I went shopping with Leone, I bought sugar instead of salt." Not even Sayo would do that one. "And on laundry duty I ended up washing Mine." Sheele scratched her head. "Lubbock is always going into the Capital so I can't go in there with him, Green is always hunting which is better done alone and Boss always has all of her stuff she has to get done, so I get to wander around." Sheele stated, honestly Sayo could not see a single job that Sheele could do without making a big mess of things.

"Why did you even get into the assassination business anyways?" Sayo asked, she felt oddly comfortable around Sheele, as if she was sure that she would not judge her, no matter what she asked.

"Oh well, I grew up in the Capital and I tried getting jobs, but I messed up everything. No one wanted to be around me because I would always make a mess of things. But then I had one friend that would always be around me, and she would even help me with things, such as walking. Then one night, I was over at her house like usual when her ex-boyfriend knocked on the door. He was furious that she had broken up with him and he started to make a mess of the house. And then, he started to choke her." She paused there before continuing her story. "All I could think was I had to save her, so I killed him. I remained surprisingly calm, as if nothing had happened. The murder was ruled in self defense and I was let out, but I never did see my friend again. A couple of days later a couple of his friends came to attack me, to get revenge and one after another, I killed them with the knife I carried for self-defense. I remained surprisingly calm the entire time. I had finally learned what I was good for. The loose screw I had made me a perfect killer, I could cleanse the world of scum. A little while alter after becoming an assassin I was sought out by the Imperial Army and I was recruited into the ranks of Night Raid and given an imperial arms." Sheele had remain surprisingly calm during the entirety of the story. If it had been Sayo she would have been a wreck but Sheele did not seem to shed a single tear. It seemed that all of them had their history of rough pasts and this was just one of them.

"Sheele…"

"Wait! Aren't I supposed to be training you? Get back in the water." While it had not been her intention, getting Sheele to forget about her original job was a nice plus because she did not want to have to do anymore swimming. However, several hours passed and all Sayo did was swim. A couple of breaks here and there when Sheele was being nice, but those were few and far between after a while. Sayo did get better at swimming after all of that but it was not exactly the best work she had. It was taxing and all she wanted to do afterwards was go to bed but now they had a meeting with the entirety of Night Raid which she could not miss. So reluctantly they went back up to the base, had a meal of meats which after the day of exercising, was very nice and then went to the meeting room where Najenda was already waiting for all of them.

"I'd just like start off by telling you all that Lubbock is recovering quickly and he will be out of his bed in no time." Najenda started off with saying and all of the had a sigh of relief, especially Sayo. "Now that you're all her, Sayo I would like you to try to use this imperial arms." Najenda handed her the spectator, the weird third eye that Zank had been using.

"Are you sure?" Sayo asked everyone.

"One hundred percent, you're the only member without one and each person can only wield one because of the strain that it causes on it's user." That made sense to Sayo, so she put the eye on her forehead. They had been able to piece together four of the five abilities so Sayo attempted to find the final one. The eye lit up green and Sayo opened her eyes to see three of her fellow people in night raid wearing just their underwear. The imperial arms could also see through objects, not the most useful but, the all of the energy that was left in her was quickly drained out of her. Akame took the imperial arms off of her forehead and gave it back to Najenda. "That is unfortunate, but we'll send this to the revolutionary army so that they can use it. The more imperial arms on our side the better chance the revolution happens." The imperial arms had rejected her. In order to wield one, you need to have a sort of affinity with it and she did not. "Here you go Sayo." Najenda handed her a book. "It is a list of all of the known imperial arms to the revolutionary army. Study it well." Sayo thanked her then went to the stand with the other members of Night Raid.

"What do you think the strongest imperial arms is?" Sayo wondered aloud.

"Each one has it's strength and it is largely determined by the use but if I had to hazard a guess, I would say the one with the ability to control ice." Najenda's metallic fist clenched. "It's user is currently away from the Capital, subdue a revolution in the north. But with her power, she will be back in no time."

"Don't worry Ms. Najenda, she'll be up there for at least another year. The army of the north is vast and will not be taken down by her without a fight." Bulat said and Najenda got out of her trance.

"Anyways, missions for this coming weeks. Lubbock is stuck in his bed so Mine and Sayo, every night you will be in charge of guarding the base, Mine, show her what to do. Green, there's a couple of spies that have been having issues because of rooming imperial armies in this area. You will leave immediately and escort them. Leone, I am going to send you in for surveillance, I want you to take Sayo one of the times so she can help with surveillance eventually. Mine and Sheele, I have a couple of missions for you that you will do have accomplish, they have been given to us by the revolutionary army. Akame and Bulat, keep the base as tidy as you can and if we get any commissions, they are yours to complete. Additionally, I would like you two to take over training Sayo starting tomorrow. Meeting is concluded." Najenda was first to leave this time, in the direction of Lubbock's room while Green left shortly after to presumably leave for his mission. Then Mine grabbed Sayo and they headed up to be on top of the roof of the base. In the distance she could see the Capital, it looked so grand from all the way up there.

"So yeah, we basically come up here, we'll take shifts of who gets to sleep and that's it really." Mine stated as she took out some snacks and started to eat them. If she was going to spend soo much time up here the Sayo would surely get some of her reading done. She pulled out the book Najenda had given her and it looked way bigger than forty eight pages but Sayo paid that no mind.

On each page there was a couple of pictures showing off what the imperial arms looked like. Then they had descriptions of what they each did, ranging from very long to short and what type of people were compatible with them. Additionally, they had a note of who was currently using it. She saw all of Night raid's imperial arms there, along with the couple other imperial arms she had seen so far but there was a lot more than just those. There was a biological imperial arms which basically took the form of a rabid dog that could never die unless you hit its core. That one was in the hands of the empire. A sword that increased all of its users' physical attributes. It made them stronger, faster, and more durable, but it the book said it was currently lost. Another sword was able to inject anyone who touches it with a lethal poison that has no cure. In the book it said that it was under the ownership of Night Raid.

"We have another imperial arms?" Sayo showed Mine the page and Mine looked at it for half a second before she understood what Sayo was saying.

"Yes, we do, but as far as we know, no one is compatible with it and if they aren't and they try to use it, they die. Much like Incursio. So, we did not give it to you to try because we did not think you'd be compatible, and we did not want to chance you losing your life." Mine stated as she looked away and went back to eating her snacks. That of course made sense, Sayo wondered about which imperial arms she would be compatible with and all she came up with was Mine's pumpkin but that was obviously being used right now and there was no way Sayo wanted Mine to lose her life so she could use her imperial arms. That just was not worth it. She would rather remain imperial armsless than have another person in Night Raid die. Before the confrontation with Zank she thought that they were all so powerful that nothing could fell them, but Zank proved to be more than a worthy adversary to Lubbock so now she was afraid. Flipping through the book, she noticed that quite a few imperial arms were in the hands of the empire. A recorder, a ring, a mask, a pair of shorts, another sword, a set of armor, another set of armor. They hade more imperial arms than Night Raid did. The path ahead would certainly be treacherous, but she was confident in the rest of their abilities. After all, the only reason Zank was so hard was because it was a bad match up. If her and Ieyasu could manage their way into beating an imperial arms user, they would be fine. "You okay there Sayo?"

"How dangerous is the average imperial arms user?" Sayo asked, all of these weapons looked magical, she had no clue how she would take them on.

"I have never actually faced an imperial arms user. I'm the only one in Night Raid that hasn't, even you have. I don't think I am the most qualified to tell you." Mine stated as she looked over at pumpkin.

"Well who do you think is the strongest in Night Raid?" Sayo had been wondering that.

"Probably the four of them that defected from the Empire. They have training like no other in the Empire and in order to obtain the ranks that they did they needed to train to get there. Lubbock was second in command to the second most decorated war general at the time, Najenda. While he doesn't have the strongest imperial arms, the sheer amount of versatility he has with it is unmatchable. Akame and Green were raised from when they were children to become assassins. They were apart of the elite seven and while I don't know everything they had gone through; I do know that they were apart of the most successful assassination squadron in the history of the Empire. And Bulat was, he was nicknamed the hundred man slayer Bulat because he killed one hundred men in one blow. One of the strongest soldiers the Empire had ever seen, his strength was even commended by the Great General." Mine stated as she tried her hardest to recall of their pasts.

"What about you then? Where did you come from?" Sayo asked her, she was quite interested in learning about everyone and so all she had learned about from Mine was that she was a part of the revolution army before she was a part of Night Raid.

"Well I didn't really come from anywhere." Mine started as she scratched her head. It was obvious that it was bringing back some unpleasant memories but before Sayo could tell her never mind her question, Mine continued. "I grew up as an orphan living in the streets. I don't really know what happen to my parents. My first memories was of me hungry and starving and trying to get myself some food. I am a baby of someone from the western region and this Empire. I don't think you know this because of where you lived but only pink haired people come from that region, so it was obvious to see that I did not belong." Mine had a faint laugh as she played around with her hair. It was bright pink, more distinct that any hair that Sayo had ever seen before. "I was discriminated against. When I was little, I did not know why I was. It made no sense. What was the difference between me and the rest of them? As I grew older, I learned what it was." Sayo had no clue that she was holding this past with her. "I learned how to survive, how to steal, how live on less than anyone should. I learned how to kill. How to never give up on a fight, and which fights. There are things that happened, that I… I don't know why they happened, but they did, and I had to survive with them. No one was going to help me, so I got strong enough to help myself." Mine held her hands together as she looked down at the ground and she stopped talking. Sayo had never been the most comforting person, she had grown up with two boys after all. She felt like she should do something, but she was incapable.

"In the early stages of the revolutionary army they were just a couple of idealist with no strength behind them, but they had alliance themselves with the people of the western regions. By the time they had recruited me I was a master marksmen, part of a militia that picked off Imperial soldiers and ran away. Not the proudest thing I have done, but it was doing something. And I needed to fight back. So, when the revolutionary army came up to me and asked me if I wanted to join their cause, I immediately joined. Quickly, thanks to my skills, I became their most skilled marksmen and was tasked with thinning off and scaring off small platoon of Imperial soldiers that wander too close to camps. However, I was deemed to not be of leadership material but when Pumpkin came in, I was the first person they tried, and I was compatible. Then Night Raid needed more members, so they sent me, and I've been here ever since." She smiled solemnly but Sayo still did not know what to say. "Don't treat me like I am someone to me protected. I've never been protected, and I surely don't want it now. Everyone of us has their own tragedy, all the matters now is that we stop others from having theirs." Mine was right.


	9. Kill the Guard

**Well this was a different.**

"That target was ridiculously protective." Mine laughed as her and Sheele were running back to Night Raid's base. As Najenda had told them, they did have missions almost nightly and they were getting them done quite efficiently. With Mine able to do scouting because she does not have a wanted poster, and then Sheele coming and offering up her the physical support that she needs to quickly take care of targets. They were one of the best duos in Night Raid, with the exception of Akame and Green but since they had known each other for over a decade it was not exactly fair to the rest of them. Additionally, they were two of the three members of Night Raid to have had zero connections with Empire. Their strength was completely their own.

"We did it though." Sheele stated with an air of sweetness to her voice. How did she maintain that level of innocence even though she was a part of Night Raid? Mine did not really know but it did not really matter. It kept the rest of them grounded and they all appreciated her presence. Then out of nowhere, and giving either of them enough time to act, someone jumped down from a tree above them and hit the ground with enough force to crack the sidewalk, sending bricks in every direction. Both Mine and Sheele jumped out of the way to avoid it. They looked up to see a girl around their age with orange pig tails.

"Sheele of Night Raid." The girl stated as she looked at Sheele then over to Mine. "And I don't know you but you're wielding Najenda's imperial arms so your also from Night Raid." The girl concluded quickly as both of the assassins got a chance to look her over. It looked like she was wearing the usual imperial guard outfit with a little bit more armor. She was probably a high ranking member of the imperial guard. Other than the gauntlet on her right hand, it seemed as though she did not have a single weapon on her.

"And you are?" Mine readied her gun. She had a feeling that person was someone quite important.

"Seryu Ubiquitous." She stated as she adjusted her arm gauntlet and Mine immediately knew who she was. Even though she had not been apart of the army, Seryu was someone known throughout it. Her lineage, much like Great General Budo's is dedicated to the Empire, serving as bodyguards and personal assistants to the Emperor since the beginning. She was the last of her line and an imperial arms user, one of the most dangerous people in the Empire. However, she was facing a two on one, only a crazy person would take on two imperial arms at once.

Then Seryu kicked off the ground hard and flying at Mine fist first but Sheele got in the middle of them and Extase and Seryu's fist connected with a loud bang. Even louder than a gun shot, the force of Seryu's blow rattled the surrounding area, having leaves fall off the tree. The gauntlet on Seryu's right arm receded back and the next thing Mine knew was that Seryu had two fancy shoes. It seemed as though, and engine started in one of the shoes and it redirected Seryu's foot straight into Sheele's face faster than Sheele could block it. Sheele flew into the ground and bounced off of it. Having Seryu close by, Mine used the opportunity to send a giant energy blast at Seryu, whose shoes turned into a shield which was reflecting the energy blast, almost back to where Mine was standing.

"What is that?" Mine exclaimed, nothing before had ever reflected her beam, that imperial arms seemed to be a swiss arm knife of abilities, switching from pieces of armor to even a shield at a moments notice. Seryu did not take any notice to this and ran at Sheele who had just gotten back up. Sheele swung her imperial arms at Seryu, but it just clicked off of the shield.

"Imperial arms: Extase. It can cut anything." Seryu stated as she sent a flurry of punches that Sheele was just barely able to block and dodge. It seemed as though Seryu was also a master in hand to hand combat. The shield that Seryu had for a couple of moments changed into a gauntlet as Seryu continued to push Sheele back with every exchange. Then Sheele counter attacked for the first time and momentarily stunned Seryu but before she could open up her scissors to cut, Seryu grabbed the end of them and held the two blades together. "However, it can't slice everything." Seryu stated as she kept the two blades together. With her other hand she hit Sheele off balance. However, Seryu had to let go of Extase, to stop Mine's attack.

"Don't forget about me." Mine blasted another, albeit less powerful shot at Seryu when she knew Sheele could not get into the blast range. Seryu let go of Extase to grab the energy blast in mid air with her gauntlet.

"Imperial arms: Pumpkin. An energy gun that gets stronger the more danger the user is in." The energy that Mine had shot over at Seryu dissolved inside Seryu's gauntlet. It seemed as though Seryu knew everything about both of their imperial arms. That was to be expected from someone who was high up in the Empire. They had access to all of the imperial records and since each of the imperial arms was made for the Empire, it would make sense that each of them was documented. It seems as though Seryu had done her research. Mine did not know what to do, they needed to get creative and fast or they would be overpowered by the might of one imperial arms users.

Then Sheele went on the offensive. Swinging Extase above her head, Sheele hit Seryu hard and even though she blocked it with the gauntlet. She was still pushed back. Slice after slice, Sheele did not let the girl get a single bit of footing or balance left. Each of her attacks connected into the next one, just like she had been taught. Sheele had been one of the newer members of Night Raid. Even though she had been with them for a while, she was still the last one before Sayo to be recruited. And she had the least amount of time with her imperial arms. However, Extase was made for her. Simple yet efficient, she knew just how to use it.

With Seryu occupied, Mine switch her imperial arms into the rifle function. Being a sniper against someone who could easily predict and defend against her attacks did go over well. She would have to provide some support to Sheele, she would not let her partner go at it alone. Taking her shots careful, Mine added to Sheele's assault by making Seryu have to defend against her attacks. Just when it looked like they had a rhythm going, Seryu staged her counter offensive. Turning her gauntlet into a sword, she cut Mine's energy bullets in half then crossed blades with Sheele. Taking turns, each one attacked the other one and it looked like they were almost equal but Mine could tell otherwise.

Everything single time Sheele attacked, it seemed as though Seryu was memorizing her attack patterns and she was some how fending of Mine's attacks also. Then the moment she had a break from Sheele, her sword turned into her flying shoes again and she kicked off from the ground a soared at Mine. Firing as many blast as she could, Seryu dodged all of them and then nailed Mine straight in the face with a flying kick. It seemed as though her boots gave her insane movement. Both quick and in the air, she was unpredictable. Mine tried her best to stay standing but another punch to the face knocked her to them ground. Turning her boots in the gauntlet again, she prepared herself to punch Mine but was interrupted by Sheele.

"I hope you two aren't the strongest Night Raid has to offer." Seryu stated as she caught Sheele's blade with her gauntlet hand as she placed one foot on top of Mine, stopping her from moving.

"Are you calling us weak." Mine laughed as she tried to range over to her gun, but it was just barely too far away.

"If you truly hope to change this Empire, you're going to need to be a lot stronger and smarter." Seryu stated as she pressed harder on Mine. The weight of Seryu's foot seemed like it was about to break Mine's ribs. Her breathing became labored as she tried her best to breathe but with every breathe, she got more tired. Without her gun, she was not much. Any imperial arms user without their weapon is not as strong as they are with it, but it was especially applicable to her. Just as she was about to give up and pass out a blinding light covered everything. It was Sheele and Extase's trump card. Seryu's foot left her body and she was able to regain regular breathing as she put on her glasses. Usually her glasses were made for her to have perfect vision in the nighttime but thanks to the scientist back at the revolutionary army, it was also able to see through Sheele's trump card. Another reason that they were such capable duo.

Taking a couple of moments to regain her breath, she looked on as Sheele continuously attack Seryu, and Seryu was able to defend but barely. Her eyes were closed as if to sacrifice sight instead of taking in the light. That was the smart decision, Mine knew. She had seen countless enemies go blind essentially after looking at the light for too long. It was that powerful. Mine did not know exactly how Extase generated such light, but she would never question it again as it had gotten them out of the situation. Grabbing Pumpkin, Mine focused her aim in sniper mode. This would be the chance, while her target was both blind and distracted. Once she got a clear shot, Mine pulled the trigger, and a blast of pure energy ripped through the impenetrable light straight towards Seryu who was hit by it and knocked far away.

"Permit me to apologize for calling you weak earlier, you have proved your strength." Seryu stood up from the blast with a chest plate on, it had absorbed the blow of the energy bullet. "All bets are off now. I wanted to take you to back alive, you would prove more useful then, but I guess, that is not a possibility." The chest plate recreated the shoes that she had used soo many times already. Sheele readied her imperial arms while Mine stood up. She still hurt but now she could tell that Seryu was going to prove to be a much stronger threat than original anticipated.

Instead of using the boots for their flying feature like she had done soo many times before, Seryu took off at a sprint at Sheele, even faster than her shoes could propel her. Sheele guarded against the flying kick the Seryu had attacked with first but was unprepared for the onslaught of attacks following it. Immediately, Seryu transitioned into a flurry of kicks and punches, all of which Sheele was able to defend against but then Seryu transformed her shoes into a scythe and hooked in straight into one of the handles of Extase and pulled it out of Sheele's hands. Extase went flying into the air and hit the ground, breaking it but Seryu paid no attention to it. Instead she kicked Sheele in the chest which toppled her and went in for the kill. Turning her imperial arms into a sword she went to stab Sheele but Mine stopped her.

"NO!" Mine's Pumpkin fired a barrage of shoots that Seryu could only defend against, at the volume Mine was shooting, there was simply too many. Seryu turned her sword into a shield again and deflected and dodged all of the bullets as she ran down the barrel of Mine's gun. She had never seen someone so brazen to attempt to run down the barrel of a gun, much less an imperial arms. With every step she took, the power of Pumpkin intensified, and the energy bullets were hitting much louder and harder. Instead of being quiet like it usually was, the air was echoing the sound of energy against metal. As if it were actual gun shots itself. However, this did soo much as slow down Seryu as she persisted and then once she was about to get into close range, Seryu threw her shield at Mine as she ducked out of the way. Mine barely dodged the shield but was unprepared for it to come back and a slash her side. Mine felt the side of her stomach let out in pain as she saw blood splatter all over the ground. Seryu grabbed her sword out of midair then jumped at Mine, turning her sword in a shield. Just as Mine was about to blast her with a massive beam, Sheele jumped straight into Seryu knocking her off course.

"She was trying to bait you into using it at such a close range, she would have reflected it and taken you out." Sheele stated as she steadied herself. "Are you okay?" Mine nodded. She was the first one of them to get injured in this battle. Even though it had felt like it had been hours so far, it had only really been a couple of minutes and as evidence by the only medium wound, it had the potential to go on for much longer. Sheele than ran at Seryu as Mine backed her up. With her sniper attachment back on, Mine was a lot more liberal with how many times she shot at Seryu. Maybe it was the wound or maybe it was the fact she had almost killed Sheele but neither way it did not matter. Sheele was fast enough to keep up with Seryu and dodged all of Mine's energy bullets before the had even gotten close. This would be how they beat her, together.

Seryu, holding her shield fast, was backed into a corner by the two Night Raid assassins. Separately, they were not a threat, she could easily take them down, but together, they barely gave her a second to breathe. However, only a second was what she needed. The moment she was given a moment to breathe, she switched into action. Her shield turned not boots and she kicked away one of Mine's energy blast that she had shot at her before, using the propulsion to shoot herself off of the ground. She did a backflip in midair and landed on her feet, giving her ample distance between herself and Sheele. Then she turned her shoes into a gauntlet and looked at her two opponents, she had a plan now. Mine took this opportunity to try and aim for a head shot. She shot but Seryu, with her hand gauntlet deflect it back at her.

"What!?" Mine exclaimed, the precision to deflect a shot that accurately was unheard of. Then Sheele ran at Seryu but just as she stepped into her lunge to cut her, Seryu took a step forward, grabbed her imperial arms, and used it to pull Sheele over head and into the ground. However, instead of taking advantage of Sheele she ran over to Mine and started her assault on her. First with her sword. Seryu, made Mine dodge quite a few attacks as she was barely able to get off any of her blasts, but then Seryu turned her sword in a shield and Mien acted. She jumped into the air, then off of Seryu's shield before, she made it, so she was completely holding Pumpkin the wrong way. Not only would it be harder to aim with Seryu's shield deflection, but it would also have an enormous amount of knock back and that was what Mine wanted. Being this close, Mine fired off a gigantic blast which sent her flying away from Seryu as Seryu was barely able to dodge it. It was too big for Seryu to block with her shield, even with how big it was. Before she hit the ground hard, she was caught by Sheele. "I knew you had my back." Mine stated as she looked at her catcher.

"I don't think we can win." Sheele stated looking at Seryu, she had just shrugged off another massive attack like it was nothing. She was definitely in another league. If this was the level of foes that they were going to face, Night Raid was sure to be in a ton of trouble. However, that did not matter right now, all that mattered was making it out alive.

"You ready?" Mine asked, and Sheele nodded. Mine ran in, full speed at Seryu this time. Slightly confused, Seryu geared herself up for anything . Mine then, using the same technique as before, shot herself off of the ground and then as she was flying in closer to Seryu, used her imperial arms to draw a line in the ground of the street, stopping, Seryu's attempt to capitalize on the flying sniper. Then Mine hit the ground, and immediately shot Seryu with a blast. It was not the strongest as she wasn't the closest, but it would get the work done. Seryu dodged it and then her and Mine engaged in close quarters combat. Utilizing her gun as an odd sword, Mine held her own for long enough before Sheele came into to help her. At this point, Seryu was using her imperial arms as a chest plate because that was where the focus of the assassins' attacks were at. Then Mine jumped back as to give herself a little bit of a break between the close combat to charge up pumpkin. Even though she was not the closet she could be, she was close enough that a charged attack would do a lot of damage. A second before Mine let the attack go, Seryu realized what was happening and punch Sheele across the face, before turning her imperial arms into a shield and blocking the blast. The blast was not bigger than the shield but the amount of force it was able to output, knocked Seryu off of her feet and into the air, landing a far bit away.

"Extase!" Once again, the entire sidewalk was covered in a shinning light that pieced through everything. Smiling, Both Sheele and Mine started to run away. They knew attacking Seryu under the blinding light would not be as effective as they wanted it to be, so they decided it was best to run with the opportunity. They could not beat her, so it was better to live to see another day than to waste away trying to defeat any enemy much stronger than themselves. Then a gunshot echoed through the air and Mine saw droplets of blood fly everywhere.

"SHEELE!" A clean shot through the back of her head had killed her instantly, the shine of Extase proved as much. In the distance she saw Seryu with a long gun in her hand and glass on her eyes much like the ones she had. She had copied Mine's glasses, that was why she had gotten in close and attacked Mine. It made sense now. Mine looked down at her gun, it was close to overheating and the right side of her pink dress was soaked red. And Seryu in the distance was completely unscathed, no matter how many attacks they could throw at her. If she was going to retreat with Sheele, she would definitely be retreating without. Putting her arm through Extase, Mine stood up. It was a lot heavier than Sheele made it out to be. She did not even know how she lifted the thing but that did not matter. All she needed to do was bring it back to base. Her gun pointed down until she heard the mechanisms of Seryu's gun kick into action. With all of the imminent danger just about to touch her, Mine pulled the trigger and Pumpkin's blast was so great that it shot her into the air and destroyed the ground she had been standing on.


End file.
